Volume 24 | Number 8023 | 2 RiyalsMonday 23 September 2019 | 24 Muharram 1441 www.thepeninsula.qa

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BUSINESS | 01 SPORT | 12

Qatar ready to welcome the world: Dahlan Al Hamad

QFC expands platform to

more FinTech providers

Amir visits Kuwait Amir in New York

QNA/THE PENINSULA NEW YORK/DOHA

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani visited yesterday the Amir of the State of Kuwait, H H Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, at his residence in New York to be reassured about the health of H H the Amir of Kuwait after completing successful medical tests. His Highness wished the Amir of Kuwait good health and wellness.

During the meeting, they reviewed the relations and ways to boost and develop them in a way which benefits both coun-tries and peoples.

The meeting was attended by a number of Their Excellencies members of the del-egation accompanying H H the Amir.

From the Kuwaiti side, the meeting was attended by Deputy Chief of the National Guard Sheikh Meshaal Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Sheikh Sabah Al Khaled Al Hamad Al Sabah and a number of Their Excellencies members of the delegation accompanying H H the Amir of Kuwait.

H H the Amir will deliver a speech at the opening session of the high-level General Debate of 74th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) tomorrow. The 74th session of the UNGA opened on September 17, 2019. The first day of the high-level General Debate

will be tomorrow (Tuesday), September 24.H H the Amir is heading the delegation

of the State of Qatar to the 74th session of the UN General Assembly, which is taking

place at the UN’s headquarters in New York. �P2

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani with the Amir of the State of Kuwait, H H Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, in New York, yesterday.

Amir to address UNGA tomorrow

QSTP plans toinvest $50mto supportstart-ups FAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA

Building on its success over the past 10 years, Qatar Science and Technology Park's (QSTP), a member of Qatar Foundation, will offer $50m in the next five years to support start-ups, said a senior official yesterday.

While QSTP’s core mandate and commitment remains to continue growing the business research and development aspect, it is actively growing its technology innovation and entrepreneurship offerings through various full-featured educational, training, men-torship, as well as compre-hensive funding programmes, said Yosouf Saleh, Executive Director, QSTP addressing a press conference yesterday.

“This positions QSTP as an engine that drives the imple-mentation of research, devel-opment, and innovation for national benefit and global impact,” he said.

QSTP was initiated as an entrepreneurial, venture funding culture, and all the associated facilities and systems to support such. �P3

02 MONDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2019HOME

Amir sends congratulations to President of Mali

DOHA: Amir H H Sheikh

Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani

and Deputy Amir H H

Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad

Al Thani sent yesterday

cables of congratulations

to the President of the

Republic of Mali, Ibrahim

Boubacar Keita, on the

anniversary of his country’s

Independence Day. Prime

Minister and Interior Minis-

ter H E Sheikh Abdullah bin

Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani

also sent a cable of con-

gratulations to the Prime

Minister of the Republic of

Mali, Boubou Cisse, on the

anniversary of his country’s

Independence Day. QNA

OFFICIAL NEWS

Qatar condemns two simultaneous blasts in north of Iraq

DOHA: The State of Qatar

expressed its strong con-

demnation and denunciation

of the two simultaneous

explosions that took place in

Iraq’s northern city of Mosul,

injuring several people. In

a statement issued yester-

day, the Ministry of Foreign

Affairs reiterated the State of

Qatar’s firm stance in reject-

ing violence and terrorism

regardless of the motives

and causes. The state-

ment expressed the State of

Qatar’s wishes for a speedy

recovery to the injured. QNA

Senegal President meets Qatari envoy QNA DAKAR

The President of the Republic of Senegal, Macky Sall, met Ambas-sador of the State of Qatar to Senegal, Saree bin Ali Al Qahtani, on the occasion of the end of his tenure. During the meeting, the

President of Senegal hailed the efforts exerted by the State of Qatar’s Ambassador throughout his tenure in Senegal to consol-idate the existing relations of cooperation between the two friendly countries, wishing him success in his future assign-ments.

The Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani met yesterday morning with the Ambassador of the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan to the State of Qatar, Zaid Mufleh Al Lawzi; Ambassador of the People’s Republic of China to the State of Qatar, Zhou Jian (left), and Ambassador of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan to Qatar, Abdul Hakim Dalili. The meetings reviewed relations of cooperation and ways of developing them between the State of Qatar and these countries.

Prime Minister meets Ambassadors of Jordan, China & Afghanistan

FM meets Romanian counterpart

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, met yesterday with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania, Ramona Manescu, on the sidelines of the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York. During the meeting, they reviewed bilateral relations and ways of boosting them as well as matters of common concern.

Qatar takes part in 14th SIAMAP 2019 in TunisiaQNA DOHA

The State of Qatar, represented by the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME), is taking part in the 14th edition of the International Show of Agriculture, Machinery and Fishing (SIAMAP 2019) to be held in Tunisia during the period from tomorrow to September 29.

The Director of Food Security Department at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, Masoud Jarallah Al Marri, said in a press con-ference in Tunis that Qatar’s participation in this edition comes in implementation of the national strategy for food security in terms of enhancing local production by introducing the local companies on the latest technologies displayed in the show from all over the world.

He pointed out that Qatar’s participation aims at enhancing the import opportunities of food products to achieve the international trade standards recommended by the national strategy for food security. He

added that this participation will introduce the culture and heritage of the State of Qatar by familiarizing visitors with traditional crafts, and also introducing the national her-itage of Qatari dress, henna painting and Qatari cuisine.

Al Marri, who is also the vice-chairman of the Com-mittee for the preparation and participation of the State of Qatar in the 14th edition of SIAMAP 2019, said that a special pavilion has been allo-cated for the State of Qatar to display the latest preparations for hosting the 2022 World Cup introducing in this context the eight stadiums of the World Cup.

The pavilion will be screening documentary films, and a presentation of the most important inland transport projects such as (Qatar Rail), as one of the most important landmarks of the state, accom-plished in a record period, explaining that Qatar’s partic-ipation comes in response to the invitation of the Republic of Tunisia represented by the Tunisian Union of Agriculture And Fishing.

MME launches initiative to attract Qatari engineersQNA/DOHA

The Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME) has launched an initiative to attract Qatari engineers to work in different sectors of the ministry.

The Director of the Human Resources Department at MME, Jabr Abdullah Al Attiya (pic-tured), said that this initiative comes part of the sustainable strategic plan for the ministry and its sectors, within the framework of Qatar National Vision 2030 and the Second National Development Strategy 2018-22, to provide the needs of the ministry with regards spe-cialized jobs that play a key role in achieving the best level of performance and productivity.

He added that recently, a number of Qatari engineers of both genders have been inter-viewed. Al Attiya highlighted the importance the ministry gives to localizing jobs part of the localization of specialized jobs plan by 2021, which was set and being implemented in cooper-ation with the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs.

The plan includes granting

scholarships to Qatari nationals for 7 years from 2015 to 2021. It also includes specialized jobs such as engineering, veterinary medicine, law, computer, and other specialized functions.

He added that the number of qualified Qatari engineers working in the Ministry is increasing steadily and in line with its plan, and the instruc-tions of HE the Minister of Municipality and Environment to develop work and attract the best Qatari talents in various sectors of the ministry. He said the initiative to attract new engi-neers from Qatar will be fol-lowed by other new steps, aimed at improving the work envi-ronment and increasing the per-centage of Qatari staff in the ministry.

WISA organises training for fire safety and firefightingTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar Manpower Solutions Company (WISA) has hosted a training for fire safety and firefighting with the General Directorate of Civil Defence to enhance the skills of the Domestic Workers to better handle all fire hazards house-hold’s might face.

The workshop comes as a part of WISA’s training plan to ensure the safety of its employees and customers.

The Qatar Manpower Solutions Company is pro-viding many other training and programs to help the domestic workers to give their best to the community, WISA’s training plan includes hospitality, occupational health and safety, languages and communication , and Qatari Culture and traditions courses.

From his side, Manish Midha, Operations Director at the Qatar Manpower Solu-tions Company , that these types of programs will add a great value to our domestic workers. Also, Qatar Man-power solutions company will always seek to make such corporation with many other government sectors and private sectors to enhance the skills of our human resources.

The Qatar Manpower Solutions Company was established under the decree of the Minister of Commerce and Industry No. 391 of 2018 for the purpose of recruiting domestic workers to its account and provide their services. Services are being provided in short terms to meet community’s urgent and part time needs. The company aims to cover part time needs of domestic workers and rais workers level of skills.

Hassad to manage three central marketsQNA/DOHA

Under the directives of Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, Hassad assigned to manage the three central markets in Al Wakrah, Um Salal, and A’Sailiyah. Accordingly, Aswaq for food facilities Management Company was

founded, to manage and operate all three central markets - in coor-dination with the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The CEO of Hassad, Mohamed bin Badr Al Sadah , said, “It’s our pleasure to announce the establishment of the new company; Aswaq for food facilities management. The company will develop and manage all three central markets to ensure

the needs of the traders, producers, and customers are all met”.

Mohamed Ghaneem Al Kubaisi the newly appointed General Manager of Aswaq,said, “We will give the primacy to the local produce in all three central markets, with the aim of achieving the national vision and to con-tribute to the country’s self-suffi-ciency efforts”.

03MONDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2019 HOME

Al Attiyah meets Chief of Turkish General Staff

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defence Affairs, H E Dr. Khalid bin Mohamed Al Attiyah, met yesterday with the Chief of General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Republic of Turkey, General Yasar Guler, who is on a visit to Qatar. During the meeting, they reviewed military and defence relations between the two countries and ways of enhancing them. The Chief of Staff of Qatari Armed Forces, H E Lieutenant General (Pilot) Ghanim bin Shaheen Al Ghanim, and a number of senior officers at the Qatari Armed Forces attended the meeting.

Corniche will be closed on September 26, 27THE PENINSULA DOHA

The Ministry of Interior has announced that Corniche will be closed for traffic on September 26 and 27 for the marathon as part of the 17th IAAF World Athletics Championships, Doha 2019.

The Ministry said in news-paper advertisement that the

Corniche and some peripheral roads will be closed for 11 hours from 6pm to next day 5am on September 26 and 27.

The women’s marathon is scheduled to start at 11:59pm on September 27.

The entire stretch of Cor-niche from Sheraton roundabout to Corniche Grand Hamad street will be closed for traffic along with some arterial roads. More

road closures will be imple-mented in the coming days for other road races like 50km walk for both men and women (to start at 11:30 on September 28), 20 km Race Walk for women (to start at 11:30 on September 29) and men (to start at 11:30 on October 4). The men’s marathon, which will also be held at the Corniche, is scheduled to start at 11:59 pm on October 5.

Qatar-China ties strong: AmbassadorTHE PENINSULA/DOHA

The Embassy of China celebrated the 70th Anniversary of the Founding of the People’s Republic of China during a reception held at The Ritz-Charlton in Doha. A number of Qatari dignitaries, officials, diplomats and other guests graced the occasion.

Among the Ministers who

attended were Minister of Administrative Development, Labour & Social Affairs H E Yousuf Mohamed Al Othman Fakhroo and Minister of Com-merce and Industry H E Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari. Also Chief of the Protocol, Ibrahim Fakhroo and Qatar Chamber’s First Vice-Chairman Mohamed bin Ahmed bin Towar Al Kuwari graced the occasion. Zhou Jian, the Chinese

Ambassador to Qatar empha-sized the journey and achieve-ments reached by his country in the past 70 years. He also high-lighted that the ties between China and Qatar is deep and concrete in different fields.

A ceremonial cake was cut by the dignitaries to mark the occasion. Also magnificent Chinese traditional perform-ances enthralled the guests.

FROM LEFT: Ibrahim Fakhroo, Director of Protocol; H E Ali bin Ahmed Al Kuwari, Minister of Commerce and Industry; Zhou Jian, Chinese Ambassador to Qatar; H E Yousef bin Mohammed Al Othman Fakhro, Minister of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs, and Mohamed bin Ahmed bin Towar Al Kuwari, Vice-Chairman of Qatar’s Chamber, cutting a cake during the 70th anniversary celebrations of the Founding of the Peoples Republic of China at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, yesterday. PIC: BAHER AMIN / THE PENINSULA

234 participants to compete in Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding 2019QNA DOHA

The Board of Trustees of Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding announced that the Steering Committee has completed the preliminary screening of the nominations submitted for the award in its fifth season for the year 2019.

The nominations reached a total of 234 participants repre-senting individuals and institu-tions involved in translation, the Committee said.

Media spokesperson for the Award Dr. Hanan Al Fayyad said in a statement Sunday that the participation increased in this year’s edition by 15.3%, bringing the total nominations to 234. The participations represent thirty-four Arab and foreign countries: Qatar, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Jordan, Palestine, Egypt, Sudan, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Uzbekistan, India, Pakistan, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Portugal, Brazil, Mozambique, Indonesia, the United Kingdom,

the United States, Canada, Somalia, Kenya and South Africa.

Dr. Al Fayyad noted that the Steering Committee has com-menced its work in handing over the works to the jury from around the Arab world and the world, and the results will be announced at the ceremony honoring the winners of the Sheikh Hamad Award for Trans-lation and International Under-standing on December 8, 2019.

Founded in 2015, Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding seeks to honor translators and acknowledge their role in strengthening the bonds of friendship and cooperation amongst peoples and nations of

the world, reward merit and excellence, encourage creativity, uphold the highest moral and ethical standards, and spread the values of diversity, pluralism and openness. The Award also aspires to inculcate a culture of knowledge and dialogue, promote Arab and Islamic culture and develop interna-tional understanding.

In its fifth edition for the year 2019, the Award selected Russian language as the second major language alongside English, with five new languages being selected in the achievement category; including Uzbek, Portuguese, Bahasa Indo-nesia, Somali and Malayalam. There are also five categories this year, which are: Translation from Arabic into English, Trans-lation from English into Arabic, Translation from Arabic into Russian, Translation from Russian into Arabic, and an Achievement Award. The total amount of the Award is $2 million divided into three cate-gories - translations awards, achievement and the award for achievement in the main two languages.

FROM LEFT: Mohammad Zebian, Program Manager Accelerators at QSTP; Yosouf Saleh, Executive Director at QSTP; Dr. Richard O’Kennedy, Vice-President of QF RDI, and Dr. Ashraf Aboulnaga, Research Director at QCRI, during a press conference at QSTP yesterday. PIC: BAHER AMIN / THE PENINSULA

QSTP plans to invest $50m to support start-upsFROM PAGE 1

This year marks a decade of achievements for QSTP. “We will collectively mark the milestones of our research, development, and innovation ecosystem in answering the needs of tomorrow at our ‘Catalyzing the Future — Driving’ ideas to impact event in October,” said Saleh.

A key announcement will be made during the event about how the next chapter in Qatar’s Research, Development, and Innovation story will unfold.

Over the years, QSTP’s investments and incubation efforts have helped to produce and commercialise 31 innovative products which have been taken into the Qatari market. More than QR4.3bn has been invested in research, development and inno-vation activities by international companies registered at QSTP. QSTP has made 115 investments

in regional companies through its partnership with Silicon Valley-based 500 Startups. 20 tech-focused Qatari startups have been incubated at QSTP. Over 50 companies, including 20 international companies — are currently based at QSTP.

“We have 88 percent occu-pancy at QSTP. QSTP promotes activities aimed at attracting local and international invest-ments and companies by enhancing economic devel-opment and supporting tech-nology-based research outcomes that foster venture creation and the innovation value chain. Throughout the years, QSTP has been home to, and business partners with, several of the biggest global companies in the world who have jointly delivered impactful and measurable ben-efits for Qatar,” said Saleh.

He emphasised on QSTP’s

premier Research to Startup (RTS) program, which aims to recruit experienced entrepre-neurs and match them with high-potential technologies that have been created in Qatar. “RTS effectively bridges the gap between research and venture

creation through a process of match-making researchers and their technology with experi-enced tech entrepreneurs to advance technologies that have been created in Qatar and achieve impact from their usage,” said Saleh. He also

highlighted positive impact of that the ongoing blockade imposed by neighboring coun-tries have on innovation and research.

“The blockade has actually opened new opportunities not only to reach the region but the

world,” said Saleh. Dr. Richard O’Kennedy, Vice-President, QF RDI; Mohammad Zebian, Program Manager, Accelerators, QSTP; Dr. Ashraf Aboulnaga, Research Director, QCRI, Hamad bin Khalifa University, also shared their views during the press conference.

“QF RDI is at the core of RDI in Qatar. We have an essential role in identifying not only chal-lenges, but opportunities, across a range of areas — ICT, energy, environment, healthcare, food security — where RDI can gen-erate solutions that strengthen Qatar’s sustainability and resil-ience, make their way into the global marketplace, and directly and positively impact people’s lives,” said Dr O’Kennedy.

He also emphasised on QSTP’s pole position as a national and regional hub for technology development and innovation.

H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, UN Sustainable Development Goals Advocate, during the high-level meeting with UN Sustainable Development Goals Advocates at UN Headquarters in New York.

Sheikha Moza participates in Sustainable Development Goals Advocacy meetingQNA NEW YORK

H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Advocate and Chair-person of Education Above All, participated in a high-level SDG Advocacy meeting hosted by the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, yesterday afternoon at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

During the meeting, Her H i g h n e s s t h a n k e d

the Secretary-General for emphasising the need for collab-oration between the advocates in order to push the 2030 Agenda.

Her Highness highlighted that Education Above All will work towards the fulfilment of universal primary education all over the world.

Her Highness also called for increased awareness about the scale of destruction caused by conflict and its negative impact on SDG progress, especially in education. Launched in 2015,

the Sustainable Development Goals aim to achieve universal peace and sustainably transform the world by 2030, through identifying and tackling various challenges like poverty, hunger, education, and climate change among 13 other goals.

In 2019, Her Highness was reappointed as an Advocate among 16 eminent persons to assist the UN Secretary-General and create momentum to achieve the 2030 Agenda.

04 MONDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2019HOME

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Ooredoo highlights benefits of Nojoom loyalty programmeTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Ooredoo yesterday highlighted many benefits of its loyalty programme, Nojoom, including the latest updates to ensure customers are fully aware of the many ways in which Nojoom can give them more.

Nojoom – which recently cel-ebrated its tenth anniversary – was designed in order to allow Ooredoo to reward its customers for their loyalty to the company, and the programme is constantly being expanded to ensure cus-tomers are consistently getting great value for money and great rewards for their loyalty.

The programme allows cus-tomers to earn points for all their spends on Ooredoo products and services, as well as earning points when they spend with a network

of quality partners from a range of over 250 leisure and lifestyle brands; restaurants, super-markets, pharmacies, hotels, retail outlets, gyms, insurance, banks, as well as service providers including travel agencies, car rental agencies, medical providers and more. Points earned can then be redeemed with the same network of partners for a selection of rewards including dining, retail and entertainment vouchers. A range of denominations are available.

A host of recent additions to the Nojoom network — including a new supermarket, boutique hotels, a major insurance company, and several travel service providers - means the potential for earning points is greater than ever before, and the range of rewards more attractive.

A s w i t h m a n y

rewards programmes, Nojoom membership is tiered; starting with Red, then Silver, then Gold, customers earn points according to their tier and the higher the tier the greater the earning potential.

Speaking of the programme, Manar Khalifa Al Muraikhi – Director PR and Corporate Com-munications at Ooredoo – said: “We recognise our customers are incredibly loyal to us, our products and our services, and we’re com-mitted to recognising this loyalty and rewarding them wherever and whenever we can. We’re con-stantly exploring the market to look for new, suitable partners for our network, so our customers have the most opportunities to earn points and the best selection of rewards from which to choose.”

Customers who are not yet Nojoom members can sign up via the Ooredoo App or at ooredoo.qa.

Vodafone welcomes Mohammed Saadon Al Kuwari as its brand ambassadorTHE PENINSULA/DOHA

Vodafone Qatar has announced Mohammed Saadon Al Kuwari as its new brand ambassador. Bringing with him extensive jour-nalism experience, Mohammed will be the new face of Vodafone Qatar and further highlight the transformative digital innovations the company is bringing to the market in addition to their immense strides in Qatar’s 5G rollout. A widely respected senior sports presenter, Saadon is known to millions across the MENA region. Saadon is also a former professional tennis player on the ATP Tour and Qatar Davis Cup representative.

Vodafone Qatar Chief Exec-utive Officer, Sheikh Hamad Abdulla Al Thani, said: “We’re

delighted to have Mohammed Saadon join the Vodafone Qatar family. He is an inspiring person and we know he will bring an exceptional level of passion to a role that will see him sharing our vision to pioneer digital services that make our country one of the

most digitally connected in the world.”

Following the announcement, Saadon said: “I’m thrilled to be joining Vodafone Qatar and becoming part of their continuous journey of bringing the best in digital innovation to Qatar.”

Vodafone Qatar CEO, Sheikh Hamad Abdulla Al Thani (left) and Mohammed Saadon Al Kuwari signing the agreement.

MME holds meeting on preventing illegal trafficking in radioactive nuclear materialsQNA/DOHA

The Ministry of Municipality and Environment in coop-eration with United States Department of Energy, held the first induction meeting on preventing smuggling and illicit trafficking in other radioactive nuclear mate-rials.

Assistant Director of the Radiation and Chemicals Protection Department at the Ministry, Abdullah Juma Al Muraikhi, said in a speech on the occasion that such meetings come within the framework of enhancing the Qatari-American cooperation in preventing smug-gling and illicit trafficking in other radioactive nuclear materials.

The meeting included technical lectures and sem-inars, as well as reviewed the US international pro-grams related to the focus of the meeting, and to identify modern technologies and techniques in the field of detection and verification of radioactive and nuclear materials.

The meeting was attended by representatives of various concerned authorities and experts from the US Department of Energy and the US Embassy in Doha.

Shura Council Speaker meets Speakers of Kuwait, Kazakhstan and Afghanistan

QNA NUR-SULTAN

Speaker of the Advisory Council, H E Ahmad bin Abdulla bin Zaid Al Mahmoud, met yesterday with Speaker of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Nurlan Nigmatulin, on the side-lines of the 4th Meeting of the Presidents of Parliaments of Eurasian Countries.

During the meeting, they reviewed bilateral relations between the Advisory Council and the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan and ways of supporting and devel-oping them, and discussed the most important topics on the agenda of the 4th Meeting of the Presidents of Parliaments of Eurasian Countries.

Speaker of the Advisory

Council, H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud, also met yesterday with Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan Mir Rahman

Rahmani, on the sidelines of the 4th Meeting of the Presidents of Parliaments of Eurasian Countries.

They reviewed bilateral rela-tions between the Advisory Council and the Afghan House of Representatives and ways to support and develop them, and discussed the most important topics on the agenda of the 4th Meeting of the Presidents of Par-liaments of Eurasian Countries.

The meetings were attended by Chairman of the Qatari-Asian Parliamentary Friendship Group Rashid bin Hamad Al Madadi, a number of members of Qatari-Asian Parliamentary Friendship Group, and Charge d’Affaires at the Embassy of the State of Qatar in the Republic of Kazakhstan Ahmed Saad Hazeem Al Sulaiti.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Silatech & WHO hold high-level event at UNGATHE PENINSULA DOHA

Silatech and the World Health Organization partnered with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Qatar to host a high-level strategy event and panel discussion on the margins of the UN General Assembly to accel-erate action on the projected global shortfall of 18 million health workers by 2030.

The high-level event, “Investing in Education, Skills and Jobs in the Health Sector,” was attended by ministers of health, economy and devel-opment, representatives of gov-ernments, international devel-opment organizations, United Nations organizations, health-care representatives, interna-tional financial institutions and permanent representatives to the

United Nations. Each stressed in their contributions that investment in healthcare would help achieve global economic and social development.

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, H E Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi; former President of Liberia and Nobel laureate Ellen Johnson Sirleaf; and Norwegian Minister of Health, Bent Høie attended the event.

H E Sultan bin Saad Al-Muraikhi, said at the outset of his speech: “Qatar’s aspiration has been and remains a leading role in contributing to the achievement of the sustainable development goals at the local, regional and international level, and by providing effective support in the face of humani-tarian and economic challenges and crises, and that it works in solidarity with international

efforts aimed at promoting security and peace and ensuring a decent life for people.”

The opening session was fol-lowed by a panel discussion that included the CEO of Silatech, Sabah El-Haidoos, the Director General of the World Health Organization, Dr. Tedros Adhanom Gebreisos, Vice Pres-ident of the European Investment Bank, Ambroise Fayol, Mohamed Ali Pate, Director of the Interna-tional Finance Unit for Women,

Children and Adolescents of the World Bank. Speakers at this session highlighted the impor-tance of promoting education and skills development for young people in the health sector, espe-cially women.

Sabah El-Haidoos, the CEO of Silatech spoke about the ambi-tious plans that Silatech has put in place to train and develop young people to help bridge the health worker gap: “It is through Silatech’s operating model of

working with a multitude of partners including governments, private sector, NGOs, interna-tional multilateral and bilateral organisations, with each partner bringing unique resources, insights and solutions that we’ve been able to create over 1.4 million jobs for youth in 17 coun-tries to date, and we have com-mitted to creating with our partners over 5 million jobs in total by the end of 2022.”

“Working with WHO on the Working for Health Programme was a very organic extension to the work we do. The partnership with the ‘Working for Health’ pro-gramme is based on our interest in providing quality training and education to fill the health worker gap and increase the output of qualified doctors, nurses, mid-wives and other healthcare workers,” Al Haidoos added.

Participants at the event agreed to find creative ways to train health workers and better coordination between all stake-holders. In this regard, the WHO director general Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus stressed that the health workforce is an essential key to achieve universal health coverage.

The former president of Liberia Ellen Johnson Sirleaf echoed Dr. Tedros’s sentiment by adding, “If we do not bridge the 18 million health worker gap, it would mean that we miss out on 18 million opportunities for economic empowerment and dignified employment, and we cannot let this happen”. The Nor-wegian Minister of Health Bent Høie stressed the urgency of spending on health workforce training as it a key to achieving Universal Health Coverage.

The high-level event, “Investing in Education, Skills and Jobs in the Health Sector,” was attended by ministers of health, economy and development, representatives of governments, international development organizations, United Nations organizations, health-care representatives, international financial institutions and permanent representatives to the United Nations.

Speaker of the Shura Council, H E Ahmad bin Abdulla bin Zaid Al Mahmoud(centre), met yesterday with Speaker of the Kuwaiti National Assembly, Marzouq bin Ali Al Ghanim, on the sidelines of the 4th Meeting of the Presidents of Parliaments of Eurasian Countries. The two sides discussed bilateral relations between the Shura Council and the National Assembly and the means to enhance them, in addition to discussing the most important issues on the meeting’s agenda. The meeting was attended by a number of Shura Council members, and Charge d’Affaires at the Embassy of the State of Qatar in the Republic of Kazakhstan, Ahmed Saad Hazeem Al Sulaiti.

During the meeting between Speaker of the Advisory Council and the Kazakh Speaker, the two sides reviewed bilateral relations between the Advisory Council and the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan and ways of further supporting and developing them.

Copies of Ambassadors’ credentials received

The Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, H E Dr. Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi, received yesterday copies of the credentials of Bomo Frank Sophonia as Non-Resident Ambassador of Lesotho to the State of Qatar; Sisonxay Ngaovongsi as Non-Resident Ambassador of the People’s Democratic Republic of Laos to the State of Qatar; Marianne Nissila as Non-Resident Ambassador of Finland to the State of Qatar; and Kazuo Sunaga as Ambassador of Japan to the State of Qatar, and Joseph Theuma as Non-Resident Ambassador of Malta to the State of Qatar. H E the Secretary-General wished the ambassadors success in their duties, assuring them full support to upgrade bilateral relations between the State of Qatar and their countries to closer cooperation in various fields. Handing the credentials copies was attended by a number of the Foreign Ministry Senior officials.

05MONDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2019 HOME

Al Jazeera signs agreement with Afghanistan Broadcasting SystemTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Al Jazeera Media Network signed an agreement with Afghanistan Broad-casting System (ABS), to launch Al Jazeera’s English and Arabic HD Channels.

Commenting on the signing of the agreement, Abdulla AlNajjar, Executive Director of the Global Brand and Com-munications Division for the Network, stated, “We are delighted to have signed a distribution agreement with

Afghanistan’s first linear Satellite Pay TV platform “Oqaab”, launched by ABS. We hope making Al Jazeera’s Arabic and

English channels accessible will provide our viewers in the region with an oppor-tunity to experience our credible, unbiased, in-depth news and award winning programmes”.

Andi Wilmers, Chief Operating Officer of ABS, commented on the agreement by saying, “We are delighted to have partnered with Al Jazeera Media Network and to be able to offer Al Jazeera English and Al Jazeera Arabic HD Channels to our Afghan audiences as part of our HD+ Sat subscription service. ABS will continue to make its

content and services easily accessible, with the highest levels of customer service, allowing consumers to quickly install and enjoy television as never before offered in Afghanistan.”

ABS, an Afghan media company based in Kabul, celebrates the launch of the country’s first Pay TV platform named HD+ Sat, which enables viewers to watch 250+ Premium channels, of which 100 are broadcasted in HD. The service was launched on Eutelsat 53A. It is now available for a nominal monthly fee.

CRA issues updated DisputeRegulations of telecom sectorTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The Communications Regulatory Authority (CRA) has recently issued the updated Dispute Regulations of the telecom sector in Qatar, which comes in line with CRA’s keenness to encourage sustainable compe-tition and prevent anti-compet-itive practices in the market.

The regulations set out the procedures and requirements that the service providers or others need to follow to file a complaint or dispute with the CRA about another service pro-vider or another stakeholders, so that the CRA can investigates it to fairly and efficiently reach a resolution as per the stipulated timeframe. These Regulations were issued pursuant to Amiri Decree No. (42) of 2014 estab-lishing the CRA, to the Telecom-munications Law, and to the Tel-ecommunications By-Law. They replace the previous Dispute Resolution and Ex Post Com-plaint processes which were issued in 2015.

“CRA ensures to set and

develop policies and regulations for a competitive market, that benefits all parties; service pro-viders and consumers. The com-petition encourages service pro-viders to provide consumers with the best innovative and advanced services, and it con-tributes to the development of the telecommunications sector in Qatar.

The Dispute Regulations will support CRA’s efforts to achieve this goal, as it will encourage

competition, prevent and reduce anti-competitive prac-tices, and prevent misuse by any person or entity of its position in the market,” said Mohammed Ali Al Mannai, President of the CRA.

As per the Dispute Regula-tions, there are three key proce-dural stages in the CRA’s assessment of any submission of a complaint or dispute. The first phase includes filing a valid complaint or dispute to CRA by email.

During the second phase, the CRA investigates the complaint or dispute, taking account of any document submissions from the parties, and in the final phase, the CRA issues its interim or final decision within the stipulated timeframe. Failure to comply with any dispute or complaint settlement decision of the CRA will result in the referral of the matter to the Penalties Com-mittee or to the Courts.The updated Dispute Regulations of the telecom sector is available via the below link:https://cra.gov.qa/en/Regulatory-Framework/Dispute-Resolution-Framework

Mohammed Ali Al Mannai, President of CRA

Commenting on the signing, Abdulla Al Najjar, Executive Director of the Global Brand and Communications Division for the Network, stated, “We are delighted to have signed a distribution agreement with Afghanistan’s first linear Satellite Pay TV platform “Oqaab”, launched by ABS.

06 MONDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2019HOME

Alfardan Automobiles reopens remodelled BMW showroom in West BayTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Alfardan Automobiles, the official importer of BMW cars in Qatar, has officially announced the reopening of its stylish and state-of-the-art BMW remod-elled flagship showroom in West Bay alongside the launch of two exciting first-ever BMW models.

Offering a new, modern and customer-centric take on the complete showroom experience, the newly revamped location will connect Alfardan’s clients with the very best BMW automobiles, professionals and services.

A landmark offering for Alfardan Automobiles and BMW fans in Qatar, the showroom is located in the heart of Doha’s

bustling business district. It is spacious enough to house up to 30 BMW models with areas ded-icated for each category, including the powerful BMW M range and luxury class models.

Nasr Jairoudi, General Manager, Alfardan Automobiles, and Dr. Hamid Haqparwar, Man-aging Director BMW Group Middle East, officially opened the showroom in front of an audience of VIPs and invited media from Qatar and further afield.

Conceptualised and created in line with BMW’s Future Retail Strategy, the showroom features a range of expertly designed fea-tures and facilities aimed at enhancing the overall customer experience.

Among these premium fea-tures is a comfortable and spa-cious area designated to cater to clients who have purchased a new or preowned BMW. Cus-tomers also get a prestigious handover experience that sets the standard of exceptional services throughout a client’s journey with Alfardan.

The showroom reopening also welcomed two new BMW models to Qatar: the first-ever BMW 8 Series M850i xDrive Gran Coupe and the first-ever BMW X4 M Competition. A powerful four-door sports car, the BMW 8 Series M850i xDrive Gran Coupe boasts impressive exterior design as well as incredible pow-ertrain and chassis technology – all of which combine to deliver a supremely dynamic drive experience.

The third model in the BMW 8 Series range, the BMW 8 Series M850i xDrive Gran Coupe has been expertly shaped by the twin goals of dynamism and elegance resulting in a BMW that perfectly represents a premium case study in modern automotive luxury.

The second engine variant – the BMW 8 Series 840i Gran Coupe. It outputs 340hp through a new 3.0 litre six-cylinder inline petrol engine, which weighs around six kilograms less than the engine it replaced.

Representing the expansion of the high-performance BMW M model line into the SAV

segment for the first time, the first-ever BMW X4 M Compe-tition is one of BMW’s most exciting vehicle launches in recent years.

It was launched globally with the BMW X3 M Competition recently, which is also expected to reach Alfardan Automobiles showrooms soon.

As well as featuring the most powerful straight-six petrol engine ever seen in a BMW M car, which is capable of an aston-ishing output of 510hp, the BMW X4M Competition also boasts flawless power distribution thanks to the latest 8-speed M

Steptronic transmission.Nasr Jairoudi, General

Manager, Alfardan Automobiles, said: “The opening of our newly redesigned flagship showroom at West Bay is a key milestone for Alfardan Automobiles and for BMW fans in Qatar. It was only fitting that this important occasion coincides with the launch of two of BMW’s newest and most exciting models. The exceptional BMW 8 Series Gran Coupe and BMW X4M Compe-tition are vehicles that represent the very peak of BMW’s engi-neering and performance capabilities.”

Dr. Hamid Haqparwar (centre), Managing Director of BMW Middle East, and Hussain Ibrahim Alfardan, Chairman of Alfardan Group, cutting the ribbon with other officials, during the opening of the BMW M power section and unveiling of new BMW M X4 and M850i held at BMW West Bay showroom. PICS: BAHER AMIN / THE PENINSULA

QM signs MoU with Seashore GroupAhmed Al Namlah, Acting CEO of Qatar Museums (QM), has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Qatar Museums and Seashore Group represented by Salem Al Mohannadi. Seashore is one of the largest multidisciplinary businesses in Qatar. The memorandum involves Seashore company to support the education and outreach programs offered by the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA). These activities will be supported through competitions, artistic workshops and various community events.

WCM-Q holds workshop on kidney disease diagnosis for QRCS physiciansTHE PENINSULA DOHA

A workshop run by Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q) provided updates for Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) physi-cians on the latest best practice in the diagnosis and management of chronic kidney disease.

The one-day workshop, which was offered on two sep-arate days, was designed in col-laboration with QRCS and aimed specifically at QRCS doctors, who frequently encounter chronic kidney disease when providing emergency or primary care to patients.

Two WCM-Q alumni who now work at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) – Dr Essa Abuhelaiqa, Nephrology & Dialysis Consultant, and Dr Mohamad Alkadi, Nephrology Consultant – were the speakers at the event. They explained how to diagnose kidney disease, evaluate kidney function, prescribe medication, and provide education for patients on nutrition and self-management of their condition.

The activity, which was coor-dinated by WCM-Q’s Division of Continuing Professional Devel-opment (CPD), also explained how to manage acute kidney injury, the stages of chronic kidney disease, the burden of kidney disease in diabetes, the effects of nutrition on kidney disease, and the criteria for referral of patients to kidney specialists.

The course directors of the activity were Dr Mohamed Al-Abiad, QRCS Head of Medical Supervision, Medical Affairs Division, and Dr Thurayya Arayssi, WCM-Q Professor of Clinical Medicine/Senior Asso-ciate Dean for Medical Education and Continuing Professional Development.

Dr Arayssi said, “The large and growing number of people with type-2 diabetes means that chronic kidney disease, which is a complication of dia-betes, is becoming more common. We are delighted that we were able to work with Qatar Red Crescent’s extremely dedicated physicians to offer them the latest updates on the management of chronic kidney disease for the benefit of their

patients. I am very grateful to our alumni, Dr Abuhelaiqa and Dr Alkadi, now of HMC, for returning to their alma mater to give us the benefit of their immense expertise and knowledge.”

The activity was accredited

locally by the Qatar Council for Healthcare Practitioners -Accreditation Department (QCHP-AD) and internationally by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME).

The workshop concluded

with a case discussion, a question and answer session, and a wrap-up summarizing the key points covered in the workshop.

Dr Ghanem Al-Sulaiti, Director of the QRCS Training, Research & Development Center (TRDC), said, “We are

very happy to collaborate with WCM-Q’s Division of Con-tinuing Professional Devel-opment on this important learning activity, which will help our outstanding QRCS doctors to provide even better care for their patients.”

WCM-Q and Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) ran a workshop on the diagnosis and management of kidney disease for QRCS doctors.

The new models displayed at the BMW West Bay showroom.

Offering a new, modern and customer-centric take on the complete showroom experience, the newly revamped location will connect Alfardan’s clients with the very best BMW automobiles, professionals and services.

Pari Gallery’s beauty festival to begin from September 26THE PENINSULA DOHA

Pari Gallery, leading company that specialises in the retail and distribution of luxury cosmetics, skincare and accessories, will hold an original-concept beauty festival — 2nd edition from September 26 until October 5, at various Pari Gallery locations across Qatar.

The concept behind the beauty festival was designed to satisfy the needs of the ever-growing beauty and cosmetics market in Qatar. The festival will offer its attendees a set of enthralling activities that include free skincare consultations from various world-renowned skincare experts, various beauty and cosmetics workshops, as

well as a variety of skincare and cosmetics products from all across the globe.

“We have set out to organise our second edition of beauty fes-tival, the first of its kind in the region, with the sole goal of reac-quainting ourselves with our cus-tomers. The free-admission beauty festival will allow us to cater to our customers with com-plete precision, offer them a wide-variety of priceless services from world-renowned experts

in the field of skincare and beauty, as well as the latest cos-metics and skincare products that have been revered across the globe,” said Hakam Al Qawasmi, General Manager – Pari Gallery.

The beauty festival will also offer its attendees the chance to win valuable gifts that will def-initely make the experience all the more unforgettable. Pari Gallery is on a mission to evolve with its clients into a new dawn of exceptional excellence.

The concept behind the beauty festival was designed to satisfy the needs of the ever-growing beauty and cosmetics market in Qatar.

07MONDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2019 HOME

QFBA-Northumbria University concludesorientation week for new studentsTHE PENINSULA DOHA

With the commencement of a new academic year, Qatar Finance & Business Academy in collaboration with Northumbria University Newcastle, success-fully concluded its orientation week over a four-day period to facilitate a positive transition for its new incoming students.

Orientation week signifies the first step towards a suc-cessful academic year for new students where they are exposed to the university’s various departments, facilities and faculty. Additionally students learned about the various student support services pro-vided by the university, creating a healthy relationship between the administration and students throughout their academic journey.

During the orientation week, students had the opportunity to be officially welcomed to QFBA-Northumbria University, in addition to learning about the university’s functions, systems and necessary information. Student were provided with the chance to ask any questions regarding their majors of choice with the courtesy of QFBA-Northumbria faculty offering detailed insight on the univer-sity’s administrative body and offerings.

Within the orientation week students were also given a tour on the university’s campus facil-ities including the classrooms, library, computer labs, medical services, cafeteria and more.

On this occasion, Dr. Khalid Al Horr, CEO of Qatar Finance and Business Academy, said: “We are honoured at Qatar Finance and Business Academy in partnership with North-umbria University to success-fully launch the orientation week in effort to empower our

students. Within the Orien-tation week’s various activities, new students were introduced to the university, faculty, sci-entific and research facilities, and various service centres tai-lored to provide a top educa-tional experience for our stu-dents creating a better tomorrow. We would like to wish our student a sincere welcome and continuous success and excellence in their academic endeavours.”

This year, the number of enrolled students in the current academic year at QFBA-North-umbria reached 193 students, of which 131 are Qatari students, representing Qatari nationals as 67.86 percent of the total student body.

The number of Qatari stu-dents enrolled at the university

has witnessed a significant increase of 238 percent between this year and the pre-vious year.

Northumbria University is one of the largest public Univer-sities in the United Kingdom, with over 35,000 students ranked ninth in the nation by number of bachelor’s degree and higher education graduates. Northumbria has also cemented its footing among the top 10 uni-versities in the UK by number of graduates entering professional employment: nine out of 10 Northumbria graduates join the advanced ranks of the workforce within six months of their grad-uation. Equally, the institution ranks 4th in the nation by number of graduate students who set up their own start-ups.

An orientation session for new students in progress.

HBKU opens registration for Fall 2019 community classesTHE PENINSULA DOHA

As part of its ongoing commitment to encourage lifelong learning and personal development among the wider community, Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) has opened registration for three community courses. The courses, offered every year to advocate personal and professional enrichment, are conducted in collaboration with well-established experts, each highly informed and expe-rienced in their respective areas.

Classes begin with Professional Skills (for women and Arabic speakers only), which runs from October 6 to 8. Partici-pants will gain valuable insights into the power and effect of words through ses-sions covering effective communication, presentation delivery, and enhanced

listening. Better communication is also at the heart of Life Skills for Success, to be held from October 13 to 15. This course provides participants with the skills they need to become effective team members in the workplace and achieve their goals through communication.

Running from October 21 to 28, Master the Art of Public Speaking will give par-ticipants the confidence to speak to larger audiences. The course offers practical insights on how to develop core messages and ideas, as well as tips on using body language as a tool to communicate clearly and effectively.

Maryam Al Mannai, Vice-President of Student Affairs at HBKU, said, “HBKU was founded with human potential at its epi-centre. Our community classes aim to empower individuals to thrive in their per-sonal and professional lives, and our fall

program of courses is no exception. Key to our success is the involvement of our subject matter experts as they offer their perspectives and add to an all-encom-passing learning experience. We are pleased to offer these opportunities to interested learners across Qatar, and hope to be able to provide them with valuable experiences that support their chosen career paths.”

HBKU Student Affairs has a core mandate of ensuring an inclusive envi-ronment for students and members of the community at-large. It seeks to instil core values and strengthen the fabric of the community by promoting the principles of lifelong learning and embracing diversity. Interested candidates can reg-ister for one or more of HBKU’s fall 2019 community classes on https://www.hbku.edu.qa/en/community-classes

The general public is invited to register for courses to encourage personal and professional development.

Qatar Neonatal Nursing Network holds inaugural symposiumTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The Qatar Neonatal Nursing Network (QNNN), a network of neonatal nurses from across Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), Sidra Medicine, and other healthcare facilities in the country, hosted its inaugural symposium, recently.

The symposium was attended by around 250 neonatal nurses from HMC, Sidra Medicine, and private sector hospitals. The event’s keynote speaker was inter-nationally renowned Dr Marsha Campbell-Yeo, a certified neonatal nurse practitioner, academic, and researcher. Dr Campbell-Yeo holds appointments with the Departments of Pediatrics, Psy-chology, and Neuroscience at Dal-housie University in Nova Scotia, Canada, and heads a research lab

that is focused on the development of innovative and non-invasive healthcare interventions that engage mothers and families in the care of their infants.

Dr Hilal Al Rifai, Medical Director of Women’s Wellness and Research Center (WWRC), said the symposium was designed to high-light clinical best practices across a broad range of topics involving the care of infants.

“This symposium was a great opportunity for neonatal nurses in Qatar to learn about recent advances in neonatal medicine

and how to apply this knowledge to managing high-risk neonatal patients. Neonatal patients now have a far greater chance of not only surviving but also thriving due to advances in neonatal medicine and the dedicated care they get from our neonatal

team,” said Dr Al Rifai. Dr Al Rifai added that the sym-

posium and QNNN provide neo-natal nurses with an important opportunity to network with their colleagues from across Qatar’s hospitals. Julie Kearney, a Clinical Nurse Manager at Sidra Medicine’s

Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU), echoed this sentiment, saying the QNNN is a platform for networking with nursing col-leagues and sharing information about current methods and new trends in neonatal nursing and medicine.

“I have experience working within neonatal nursing networks for many years in the UK so I’m excited to be a part of establishing a neonatal nursing network here in Qatar. As Sidra Medicine is a level 4 surgical referral center, we must have collaborative working relationships with the other neo-natal units in Qatar. Networks can raise standards of care through shared learning and standardi-zation of practice. I very much look forward to working with my neonatal nursing colleagues across Qatar,” said Kearney.

Vicki Kilmurray, Director of

Nursing at WWRC’s NICU high-lighted the important role neonatal nurses play as advocates, adding that caring for a hospital’s smallest patients takes specialized training and a unique skill set.

“Throughout the patients and families time in the neonatal unit, it is the neonatal nurses who advocate for them and their family. This places neonatal nurses in the unique position of building trust and rapport with the families in their care and is a great oppor-tunity to facilitate patient and fam-ily-centred care, the importance of which is outlined in both Qatar’s National Health Strategy 2018–2022 and HMC’s Nursing and Mid-wifery Strategy 2018-2022,” said Kilmurray.

The symposium coincided with International Neonatal Nurses Day, observed this year on September 15.

Vicki Kilmurray speaks during the QNNN’s inaugural symposium.

The symposium was attended by around 250 neonatal nurses from HMC, Sidra Medicine, and private sector hospitals.

During the orientation week, students had the opportunity to be officially welcomed to QFBA-Northumbria University, in addition to learning about the university’s functions, systems and necessary information.

The American intervention resulted in a failed state after the Libyan parliament replicated the disastrous policy the United States had pursued in Iraq: barring anyone who worked for the previous regime from holding office.

JAPAN NEWS-YOMIURI

08 MONDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2019VIEWS

Did Barack Obama, not Donald Trump, launch the new cold war?

Historians recently rated Barack Obama (pictured) as the 12th best president in the nation’s history. On foreign

policy, they lauded his pragmatism, multilateralism and internationalism. These traits all contrast favourably with his predecessor’s preference for unilateralism and “cowboy diplomacy” and his successor’s scorn for Washington’s traditional Western allies and for multilateral organiza-tions such as Nato.

But not everyone agrees. In the first comprehensive and critical analysis of Obama’s foreign policy, historian Jeremy Kuzmarov highlights Obama’s mistakes and reckless policies with consequences around the globe, espe-cially the tensions with China and Russia that continue to escalate today. The book also advances a leftist cri-tique that is at odds with how main-stream historians view Obama.

Like much of his previous schol-arship, Kuzmarov brings a revisionist sensibility - like historians such as William Appleman Williams, who blamed Washington for the outbreak of the Cold War - to investigating the 44th president. He does not aim to offer “impartial” or “balanced” history; for him, such an approach has allowed former policymakers to escape culpa-bility for mistakes that heightened

tensions with other coun-tries and led to human rights abuses and even mil-itary defeat.

“Obama’s Unending Wars: Fronting the Foreign Policy of the Permanent Warfare State,” therefore, while an ambitious effort to analyze Obama’s foreign policy

record, offers neither a nuanced nor empathetic appraisal of the former president. Nonetheless, Kuzmarov’s book is serious and fair and should prompt historians - and the rest of us - to reevaluate Obama’s legacy.

Kuzmarov’s primary criticism of Obama’s foreign policy is that it insti-tutionalized a permanent warfare state, despite promises to the contrary. On the campaign trail, Obama had cul-tivated an image as a peace candidate. But rather than living up to his cam-paign promises, and using his immense rhetorical skills to reverse

the policies of his predecessor, he largely used them to cover for con-tinuing George W. Bush’s foreign pol-icies, including solidifying a surveil-lance state, punishing whistleblowers and expanding drone attacks.

Obama’s hawkish foreign policies were evident around the globe. Take Africa: Kuzmarov argues that Obama employed the same paternalistic lens as his white predecessors and “pro-moted the colonialist assumption that America and its institutions were superior . . . while burying the West’s complicities” in crimes committed by allies including closing down critical media outlets, rigging elections and torturing or murdering the political opposition.

Seeing the region through this lens dictated an expansion of US military bases and military training in Africa, slashing funding for AIDS treatment and backing some of the continent’s most oppressive regimes. Obama even removed restrictions on funding regimes that used child soldiers, while claiming to protect human rights by sending US troops to hunt down war-lords like Joseph Kony.

The gap between Obama’s rhetoric and his foreign policies extended to the Middle East. Kuzmarov’s chapter on Libya arguably best demonstrates the shortcomings of Obama’s policies. It portrays both Obama and his first-term secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, as hawks who did not seriously con-sider the consequences of the military intervention to oust Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi. The American intervention resulted in a failed state after the Libyan parliament replicated the disastrous policy the United States had pursued in Iraq: barring anyone who worked for the previous regime from holding office.

A similar disaster followed US intervention in Syria. Despite waging a war against Islamic radicalism, the administration supported Islamist mil-itants in its effort to topple dictator Bashar Assad. It also relied on reports by the White Helmets, a group with links to fundamentalists, to demonize Syria and galvanize support for US intervention.

Kuzmarov’s criticism should not be dismissed simply as a defense of

Assad. It raises a broader and trou-bling question: Why is the United States still arming radical Islamic par-amilitaries, given how badly this has backfired in the past, most especially in Afghanistan?

These policies largely evaded scrutiny because of Obama’s hope-filled rhetoric. But according to Kuz-marov, that language was often chi-merical. The president’s much lauded June 4, 2009, address to a massive crowd at Cairo University, for example, held out the promise for a “new beginning” in US relations with the Muslim world. But the president continuously undermined this goal with his policies, including working with the Egyptian military to over-throw a Muslim Brotherhood-led gov-ernment, supporting Saudi Arabia’s war in Yemen and remaining a steadfast ally of Israel, even after its brutal siege of Gaza.

Most controversially, Kuzmarov accuses Obama of triggering a new cold war between Russia and the United States. This argument builds upon those presented in more depth in an earlier co-written book, “The Russians Are Coming, Again: The First Cold War as Tragedy, the Second as Farce.”

Kuzmarov’s willingness to blame Obama for the deteriorating rela-tionship between the United States and Russia stems in part from seeing Vladimir Putin far more sympatheti-cally than most. He sees the Russian strongman as a nationalist determined to restore Russian prominence and ignores Putin’s alleged involvement in the deaths of his political opponents, viewing accusations of such involvement as unsubstantiated.

When Putin is viewed through this lens, it is easier for Kuzmarov to crit-icize Obama’s handling of Russia. The administration’s support of the Maidan protests in Ukraine, triggered by the Ukrainian government’s decision to pursue closer relations with Russia, therefore, is depicted not as a stand for democracy and freedom, but as an action that further poisoned relations between Russia and the United States. Even worse, it empowered a violent and corrupt Ukrainian government that makes a mockery of the White House’s professed concern for human rights.

BRIAN D’HAESELEER THE WASHINGTON POST

QUOTE OF THE DAYWe are committed

to realising a decarbonised society,

and we are ready to contribute as a more

powerful country in the fight against

climate change.

Shinjiro Koizumi Japanese Environment

Minister

Anti-Japan sentiment causing decline in South Korean visitors

The South Korean government continues to emphasize its hard-line policy toward Japan, fanning anti-Japanese sentiment at home

through the media and the internet. South Koreans are exercising self-restraint in traveling to Japan, and the boycott of Jap-anese products is spreading in their country. This situation is regrettable.

The number of South Korean travelers to Japan in August almost halved on a year-on-year basis, marking a 48 percent reduction from the same month last year. The situation is starting to adversely affect regional economies in Japan, as seen in the city of Tsushima, Nagasaki Prefecture, whose economy heavily relies on South Korean visitors.

There has been an upward trend in the number of visitors to and from Japan and South Korea in recent years. The figure hit the 10 million mark last year. Promoting active private-sector exchange is expected to ease the discord

between the two nations’ governments. There are concerns that the mutual exchange may taper off.

The decline in South Korean visitors to Japan is because they are more and more inclined to restrain themselves from traveling to Japan, as anti-Japanese sentiment has risen in their society.

There is said to be an atmosphere in which South Koreans shy away from sharing the photos taken during their sight-seeing tours in Japan through Instagram and other social networking services. There has been a noticeable number of comments posted to emphasize they have changed their destinations.

The boycott of Japanese products is also continuing. The import value of Jap-anese beer in August sharply dropped to as little as 3 percent of the figure a year earlier. Uniqlo casual clothing stores are struggling to cope with the situation, too.

In South Korea, there were similar boycotts in the past due to the history issue between the two countries, but these campaigns did not last long. The surge, as

seen in the ongoing boycott, is unusual. There seems to be a renewed atmosphere in which anti-Japanese feelings are regarded as proof of patriotism, arousing pressure to conform to this.

South Korean President Moon Jae-in’s responsibility is extremely grave in this respect. He has decried Japan’s tightened export management as an act of “economic retaliation” tied to the issue of requisitioned workers, insisting the Japanese government has not acknowl-edged the errors committed in the past and that it is distorting history.

He has also repeatedly asserted that Japan is trying to prevent South Korea’s economic growth, for example, as if to stir up antagonism between the two countries. Angry sentiment has spread among South Koreans, who feel semi-conductors have been singled out as a target. The ongoing problem has drawn attention to an economic issue that can directly affect their lives, besides the history issue, and this has attracted interest from a broader range of people.

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDR. KHALID BIN MUBARAK AL-SHAFIeditorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMEDm.salim@pen.com.qa

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED OSMAN ALI osman@pen.com.qa

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

EDITORIAL

Creating quality infrastructure

Keeping its tradition of delivering mega development projects within stipulated time alive, the Public Works Authority (Ashghal) has now completed 72% of the

development works on Umm Lekhba Interchange within the work of Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor project.

Like the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC) which has delivered a number of 2022 FIFA World Cup stadiums well in time, Ashghal is also fast completing dif-ferent mega road projects linked to Qatar 2022.

Sabah Al Ahmad Corridor will also facilitate access to most of the World Cup FIFA 2022 stadiums including Ras Bu Abboud, Al Thumama, Al Wakra, Khalifa International and Qatar Foundation Stadiums.

Recently, the Public Works Authority also opened Ras Al Noof Interchange and Tinbak Interchange, as part of Al Khor Road project. The new interchanges are located in the north of Al Khor Road, serving many residential areas, vital facil-ities, economic, sports and leisure activities, such as Ras Laffan, Ras Al Noof and Tinbak, as well as Al Bayt Stadium.

In March, Ashghal opened the 33-kilometer-long main road of Al Khor Road after successfully converting the old

road into a highway from Al Khor Road in Al Khor to Qatar Uni-versity Street in Doha.

The opening of Al Majd Road almost seven months ago has sig-nificantly contributed in linking the traffic coming from Al Khor Road and vice versa especially that Al Majd Road intersects with all other arterial roads in the country such as Al Shamal Road, Dukhan Road, Salwa Road to Mesaieed Road.

At the same time, Ashghal is fast completing the B-Ring Road Development project. It aims to develop the B-Ring Road and Al Khaleej Street, with a total length of 10km, and enhance their capacity by increasing the number of lanes on each of them from two to three lanes in each direction.

The project also includes pro-viding several elements that will

increase the traffic safety in the area, such as providing two pedestrian bridges with elevators on Al Khaleej Street, as well as cycle and pedestrian lanes, road signs and road markings, and new street lighting.

Ashghal is winning accolade in the region and beyond for its quality work. Recently, Ashghal’s Main Trunk Sewer (MTS) Project in Doha South achieved the Civil Engineering Environmental Quality Assessment and Award Scheme (CEEQUAL) ‘Good Rating’ and became the first and only project in the region to obtain the CEEQUAL Design and Build Award.

In July this year, Ashghal, represented by the Information Systems Department and the Engineering Services Department, won the GIS Excellence Award for the use of GIS technology in Moazanah Program on the sidelines of the Esri Global User Conference 2019 held in San Diego.

Like the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC) which has delivered a number of 2022 FIFA World Cup stadiums well in time, Ashghal is also fast completing different mega road projects linked to Qatar 2022.

President of Kazakhstan, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev (pictured), in his State of the Nation Address titled ‘Con-

structive Public Dialogue - The Basis of Stability and Prosperity of Kaza-khstan’ has said that the country’s budget should be focused on two main objectives – the development of the economy and solving social problems.

“Approximately thirty years ago, we proclaimed our independence thus fulfilling the dream that our ancestors had for centuries. Since that time, under the leadership of the First President of Kazakhstan – the Leader of the Nation Nursultan Nazarbayev, our country has become a stable and reputable state in the world.”

He said thanks to the solid unity of our nation, we have strengthened our independence and created opportunities for improving the well-being of our people. The whole world recognized the way of development of the country and called it the Kaza-khstan model or the Nazarbayev model.

Here are some excerpts from the address of Kazakhstan President.

The political transformation I promised will be gradually and steadily carried out taking into account the interests of our state and people. World experience shows that explosive, unsystematic political lib-eralization leads to the destabilization of the domestic political situation and even to the loss of statehood.

Therefore, we will carry out political reforms without “running ahead of ourselves”, but consistently, persistently and thoughtfully. Our fundamental principle: successful economic reforms are no longer pos-sible without the modernization of the country’s socio-political life. “A strong President – an influential Par-liament – an accountable Gov-ernment.” This is not a fait accompli,

but a goal towards which we must move at an accelerated pace.

Our common task is to implement the concept of the “Listening State”, which quickly and efficiently responds to all constructive citizen requests. Only through a constant dialogue between the Government and society can a harmonious state be built in the context of modern geopolitics.

The Nur Otan party, thanks to our Leader and its Chairman, Nursultan Abishevich Nazarbayev, is consist-ently carrying out the difficult and responsible mission of the country’s leading political force. We must cooperate with other political parties and movements that pursue a con-structive policy for the benefit of society. The main problems that concern our society should be dis-cussed and their solutions should be found in Parliament and in the framework of civil dialogue, but not on the streets.

The upcoming elections to the Mazhilis of Parliament and Mas-likhats should contribute to the further development of the multi-party system in the country.

Public dialogue, openness, quick response to the needs of people are the main priorities for the activities of state bodies. A department has been created in the Presidential Adminis-tration that will monitor the quality of reviewing citizens’ requests by state bodies and take prompt measures on them.

The harmony between social and ethnic groups is the result of the joint work of the whole society. In this regard, it is necessary to analyse political tendencies and take concrete measures to strengthen our unity. We need, taking into account the role of the Kazakh people as a nation-building people, to continue building inter-ethnic concord and inter-reli-gious understanding.

We will continue to provide con-ditions for the development of lan-guages and cultures of all ethnic groups in our country.

I believe that the role of the

Kazakh language as a state language will grow and the time will come when it becomes a language of interethnic communication.

A key factor in enhancing the protection of citizens’ rights and their security is the substantial reform of the judicial and law enforcement systems. A number of serious measures must be taken to improve the quality of court decisions.

I instruct the government to take urgent measures to tighten the rel-evant legislation within two months. The issue of a systemic fight against corruption is also on the agenda. It is necessary to restore anti-corruption expertise of draft regulatory legal acts of national and local authorities with the participation of experts and the public.

One of the most pressing tasks remains a full-fledged reform of the law enforcement system. The image of the police, as a power tool of the state, will gradually become a thing of the past; it will become a body pro-viding services to citizens to ensure their safety.

The effectiveness of the work of the police depends on the reputation of the police service itself. Over the next three years, 173 billion Tenge will be allocated to reform the Min-istry of Internal Affairs. These funds will be used to increase wages, provide accommodation, and the creation of modern front-line police offices on the principle of public service centres.

Kazakhstan’s economy is moving forward despite the global challenges. From the start of the year its growth has been higher than the world average. If necessary structural adjustments can be implemented, by 2025, annual sustainable growth of gross domestic product can reach 5% or higher.

In order to give a new impetus to the development of the economy, the Presidential Administration and the Government should carefully analyse the work of domestic and foreign experts. We need to implement a number of structural tasks in line

with the Long-term Development Strategy 2050 and the Plan of the Nation proposed by Elbasy.

Our state-owned companies have become bulky conglomerates whose international competitiveness is in doubt.

In order to reduce the unjustified presence of the state in the economy, I decided to introduce a moratorium on the creation of quasi-state-owned companies.

The Government, together with the Accounts Committee,

must conduct an analysis of the effec-tiveness of state holdings and national companies within three months.

The Government needs to sys-tematically and substantively deal with pricing and tariff issues. This also applies to the goods and services of natural monopolists. It is no secret that prices in our country are high – from food and clothing to the cost of various services.

Our goal is to ensure the full development of market institutions and mechanisms with the stabilizing role of the state.

At the same time, one should not forget about the “economy of simple things”. This is a priority area of our work.

Third. Effective small and medium sized businesses are a solid foundation for the development of cities and villages.

Small enterprises, especially micro-businesses, play an important role in the socio-economic and political life of the country.

There are plenty of examples of entrepreneurship development in our country. Our whole society needs to support small businesses. I instruct the Government to develop a legislative framework to exempt micro and small business companies from paying income tax for a period of three years. Corresponding amendments to the legislation should enter into force from 2020. My decision for a three-year ban on inspections of micro and small business entities will come into force from January 2020.

It is necessary to seriously intensify efforts to attract foreign direct investment, without which the potential for further economic growth will be limited. This is one of the priority tasks of the executive branch. Within the framework of the Strategic Plan for the Development of Kazakhstan until 2025, appro-priate targets are set for each industry and region.

Their achievement is the direct responsibility of the heads of state

I believe that the role of the Kazakh language as a state language will grow and the time will come when it becomes a language of interethnic communication. A key factor in enhancing the protection of citizens’ rights and their security is the substantial reform of the judicial and law enforcement systems.

09MONDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2019 OPINION

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Role of Social ProgressIndex in measuring SDGs

Kazakhstan’s economy moves forward despite global challenges

AMIT KAPOOR IANS

THE EMBASSY OF KAZAKHSTAN DOHA

In this highly competitive and fast-growing world, every indi-vidual wants to achieve new heights. Each country wants to

tread on the path of holistic growth in all spheres be it economic, social, or political to surpass the other countries.

This struggle of fast-tracking growth has given rise to indiscrim-inate and irrational use of resources and exploitation of the environment. Thus the need for sustainable devel-opment has been more strongly felt than ever before.

Sustainable development in lay-man’s terms, is a process of attaining economic development with judicious utilization of available resources without the latter getting depleted. However, in the present world, this definition is slightly revised to include social and environmental aspects of development as well.

To ensure that the notion of sus-tainable development does not fade

away, the year 2015 witnessed the launch of a path-breaking initiative called Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The United Nations and other leaders of the world formulated 17 goals having 169 targets in total to be fulfilled within 15 years.

These SDGs constitute all the nec-essary components of a progressive society ranging from physical safety to economic opportunity and good health. Their overarching aim is to end poverty, protect the planet and at the same time ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030.

On the contrary, the vastness of parameters accompanying SDGs is often looked upon as a challenge. The plethora of indicators taken into con-sideration not only make achieving these goals difficult but also make it strenuous to capture every one of these indicators.

This has resulted in an estimate that only one-third of the 230 indi-cators can be captured. This is pri-marily because SDGs, by definition, is merely a list of goals with no con-ceptual model. Thus, a framework is required, which provides a solution to these challenges.

The recently launched sixth round of Social Progress Index (SPI) seems to ameliorate this issue by providing a simple yet rigorous framework. This framework not only captures the spirit of the SDGs but also provides us with a tool to achieve these goals.

Since SPI generates scores for each indicator, they can be easily tracked over time and, thus, can easily be understood and used by policy-makers, researchers, businesses, and the general public for the betterment of our livelihood and society.

These scores give us a measure of actual progress made towards achieving these SDGs. The index, therefore, plays an instrumental role in monitoring their current per-formance and determine the areas to accelerate progress towards SDGs.

That being said, the Social Progress Index can indeed make SDGs a tangible reality. Shockingly, the latest scores of SPI 2019 have raised concerns regarding the fulfilment of Sustainable Development Goals by 2030.

Michael Green, CEO of Social Progress Imperative, has argued that social progress is not advancing at the required rate, making it extremely dif-ficult to fulfil the UN SDGs until 2073. However, this pessimism can be over-turned if India and China, effectuate the goals rapidly.

Because of the humongous popu-lation base, both the countries can prove to be very influential in formu-lating these SDGs.India so far has been fulfilling the goals but at a plodding pace. Since the inception of SDGs in 2015, the country has not been able to achieve any goal completely. But, for a variety of indicators, it has shown sig-nificant progress.

Since SPI generates scores for each indicator, they can be easily tracked over time and, thus, can easily be understood and used by policymakers, researchers, businesses, and the general public for the betterment of our livelihood and society.

bodies, especially regional akims.The Government will have to

adapt the legislation to new techno-logical innovations: 5G, Smart Cities, Big Data, blockchain, digital assets, and new digital financial instruments.

The Government should con-tinue to support the activities of the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), which, in essence, has acquired constitutional status. The AIFC could become a platform for the development of the latest digital technologies together with the Nazarbayev University.

It is necessary to reduce expen-ditures from the National Fund on solving current issues. These are the resources of future generations. The use of the National Fund should be allocated only for the implemen-tation of programmes and projects aimed at the formation of a compet-itive economy. The amount of guar-anteed transfers used should grad-ually decrease to 2 trillion tenge from 2022.

The country’s budget should be focused on two main objectives – the development of the economy and solving social problems.

We have entered a new stage in reforming the country. We must fulfil these important tasks to a high standard.

Every citizen of the country should feel positive changes. I demand Government agencies work rapidly and achieve real results. It is unacceptable to carry out reforms for the sake of reforms. Each min-ister and akim should have a list of key performance indicators.

10 MONDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2019GULF / MIDDLE EAST

Iran to introduceHormuz peace planat UNGA: RouhaniQNA/AFP TEHRAN

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said yesterday that Iran will present an initiative to the UN General Assembly on safe-guarding peace in the Gulf, Sea of Oman and the Strait of Hormuz together with regional states.

Iran’s path is to create unity and coordination among regional countries, Rouhani added.

The next 74th session of the UN General Assembly will open in New York tomorrow.

“Foreign forces can cause problems and insecurity for our people and for our region,” Rouhani said before a massive military parade marking the Iran-Iraq war.

“In this sensitive and important historical moment, we announce to our neighbours that we extend the hand of friendship and brotherhood to them,” he said.

Rouhani and top military brass saluted as row after row of soldiers marched past them in tight unison followed by an array of homegrown military hardware.

The parade showcased tanks, armoured vehicles, drones and missiles — including the Khor-ramshahr, said to have a range of 2,000km.

Tensions between Iran and the US and its allies have threatened to boil over since May last year when President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from a 2015 nuclear deal and later began reimposing sanctions.

The tensions escalated in the wake of devastating September 14 attacks on Saudi oil installa-tions that Washington and Riyadh have, to varying degrees, blamed on Tehran.

Following the attacks, which caused global oil prices to spike, Trump initially raised the possi-bility of a military response, saying the US was “locked and loaded”.

Washington later expanded its long list of sanctions against Tehran by further targeting its central bank, as Trump indicated he did not plan to strike back.

On Friday, Defence Secretary Mark Esper said the US was sending reinforcements to Saudi Arabia at “the kingdom’s

request”, while noting the forces would be “defensive in nature”.

In his speech, Rouhani called on the foreign powers to “stay away” from the Gulf.

“If they’re sincere, then they should not make our region the site of an arms race,” he said.

“Your presence has always brought pain and misery... The farther you keep yourselves from our region and our nations, the more security there will be.

“We are even ready to ignore their past mistakes... since today the situation is such that the enemies of Islam and the region, meaning America and Zionism, want to abuse the rift between us.

“Our logic is the logic of a

Persian Gulf whose security comes from within.”

The annual military parade marks the start of the week com-memorating Iran’s 1980-1988 war with Iraq.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif tweeted that Rouhani would announce details of the “Hormuz Peace Endeavour” at the UN General Assembly. Rouhani is expected to travel to New York today.

Tensions have flared in the Gulf since May, when Iran began reducing its commitments to the nuclear deal and the US said it was sending forces to waters near Iran in response to “indica-tions of a credible threat” from its forces. The US deployed an

aircraft carrier strike group and a bomber task force to the sen-sitive waterways, before sending B-52 bombers, an amphibious assault ship and Patriot missile battery. Following the deploy-ments, commercial ships were mysteriously attacked, drones downed and oil tankers seized in Gulf waters.

Trump in June authorised a military strike after Iran shot down a US drone, only to call off the retaliation at the last moment.

The crisis deepened with the September 14 attacks on Saudi energy giant Aramco’s Abqaiq processing plant and Khurais oil-field which halved the kingdom’s crude output.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaks during a military parade marking the 39th anniversary of the outset of the Iran-Iraq war, in Tehran, yesterday.

Iran to releaseUK tanker Stena ImperoREUTERS GENEVA

Stena Impero, the British-flagged tanker detained by Iran on July 19, will be released soon, an Iranian maritime official said yesterday, according to the semi-official Fars news agency.

“After the issuing of the ruling for the end of detention of the English tanker Stena Impero this vessel will soon, and after the passing of 65 days, begin its movement from the port of Bandar Abbas toward international waters,” said Allahmorad Afifipour, the head of the Ports and Maritime Organisation of Iran in Hor-mozgan Province.

He did not provide any additional information on when the tanker may be released.

Seven dead in attacksnear Iraqi capitalAFP BAGHDAD

Seven people have been killed in three attacks in the northern outskirts of the Iraqi capital, security sources said yesterday, despite the army recently declaring the area swept of mili-tants.

The overnight attacks on Saturday into Sunday targeted the homes of tribal fighters belonging to the powerful Hashed al-Shaabi paramilitary force, as well as army barracks, in the Sunni suburb of Tarmiya, the sources said.

The Tribal Hashed is com-posed largely of Sunni fighters and feeds into the broader Shia-dominated Hashed al-Shaabi, which fought back the Islamic State group with Iraqi troops.

IS sleeper cells have con-tinued to operate in Tarmiya, according to the security sources.

“Unidentified gunmen attacked the home of a member of the Tribal Hashed, killing him, his wife, his son and mother,” a police officer said, asking to remain anonymous.

The officer said a separate

attack overnight saw sniper fire hit an army barracks, killing two members of the security forces.

And at dawn yesterday, another attack targeted a Tribal Hashed member’s home, killing one, he added.

In the afternoon yesterday, security forces announced they had killed one would-be suicide bomber in a village in the Tarmiya region.

For weeks this summer, Iraqi forces — the army, police and the Hashed — combed the orchards around Tarmiya for IS sleeper cells.

In July, they declared the operation a success after arresting several alleged IS members.

IS overran large parts of Iraq and neighbouring Syria in 2014, declaring a “caliphate” in areas they controlled.

Iraq in late 2017 declared victory against IS but the group’s disparate network of under-cover fighters still carries out deadly attacks across the country.

On Friday, an attack claimed by IS killed 12 people on the edge of Karbala, as the Shia holy city prepares to receive millions of pilgrims next month.

Vehicles loaded with food are pictured during a ceremony held to collect supplies for Houthi fighters in Sana’a, Yemen, yesterday.

Kuwait Ministerpromisesimpenetrablesecurity platformQNA KUWAIT

Kuwaiti military will do every-thing in its power to adopt stringent security measures to ensure the protection of the country’s borders, Acting Prime Minister and Defence Minister Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah said yesterday, according to Kuwait news agency (KUNA).

The minister’s remarks came amid a meeting he held with the country’s top military brass, pointing out that the media is obligated to be extra credible and accurate in the midst of these trying times, according to a defense ministry statement.

He urged the public to be leery of the veracity of news shared on social media plat-forms, saying his talks with the military officials revolved around the status quo in the region and what responsive measures are needed given the alarming situation at hand, added the statement.

During the meeting, Sheikh Nasser Al Sabah listened to a detailed briefing from senior commanders of the Kuwaiti army, which included the latest developments and events in the region at the moment and the precautionary measures taken to raise the state of readiness and readiness for some army forces,as required by the current situation.

Suspected drones disrupt Dubai flightsAFP DUBAI

Flights at Dubai’s international airport were briefly disrupted yesterday due to “suspected drone activity,” officials said.

Two arriving flights had to be diverted, it said, while media reports said the planes had landed at a smaller airport in the neighbouring emirate of Sharjah.

“Dubai Airports can confirm that flight arrivals were briefly disrupted at Dubai Interna-tional from 12:36 (0836 GMT) to 12:51 (0851 GMT) UAE local time this afternoon due to sus-pected drone activity,” a spokesperson said in a statement. Flights at the airport have been disrupted several times in recent years by recre-ational drones, with the last incident occurring in February. However, the latest disruption comes amid heightened ten-sions in the region.

Israeli settlers raze Palestinian land near RamallahQNA RAMALLAH

Israeli settlers yesterday razed a Palestinian-owned land near the village of Turmus Ayya, to the north of Ramallah in the occupied West Bank, according to local sources.

The head of the Turmus Ayyam municipality Refaat Lafi said that illegal Israeli settlers

from the illegal settlement of Adi-Ad, nearby, and who were escorted by soldiers proceeded to raze about six dunums of land near the village.

Lafi said the land razed belongs to a local Palestinian farmers from the village.

Israeli occupation forces blocked also the entrances to the village of Kifl Hares, near the West Bank town of Salft,

according to local Palestinian sources.

Israeli soldiers closed the vil-lages main south entrance with a metal gate and banned local Palestinian passengers and drivers from using it. In the meantime, they set up a check-point on the west entrance of the village, causing a huge traffic jam for those attempting to enter or leave the village.

Israeli Arab parties back Gantz in bid to oust NetanyahuAFP JERUSALEM

Israeli Arab political parties broke with longstanding prec-edent yesterday and endorsed former military chief Benny Gantz for prime minister following last week’s elections, seeking to keep the president from asking incumbent Benjamin Netanyahu to form the next government.

The dramatic move came after the mainly Arab Joint List alliance won 13 seats in Tues-day’s polls, making them the third-largest force in the 120-seat parliament.

In announcing the decision, Joint List leader Ayman Odeh said the alliance’s decision was not an endorsement of Gantz’s

policies but a move to oust Netanyahu, Israel’s longest-serving prime minister.

Netanyahu has repeatedly been accused of political rhetoric and actions amounting to racism toward Israel ’s Arab population.

“We have become illegit-imate in Israeli politics in the Netanyahu era,” Odeh told Israeli President Reuven Rivlin when informing him of the endorsement.

“We are this time recom-mending Benny Gantz to form the next government.”

Prominent Arab parliament member Ahmad Tibi said “history is done: We’ll do what is needed to bring down Netanyahu.” It was the first time that majority Arab parties had

endorsed a candidate for prime minister since 1992, when they backed Yitzhak Rabin, who went

on to sign the Oslo accords with the Palestinians.

But it was not at all certain

that the Arab parties would succeed in their mission to end Netanyahu’s long dominance of Israeli politics.

Rivlin, who began holding consultations with parties yes-terday to hear their recommen-dations on who should form the next government, said he believed both Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud and Gantz’s centrist Blue and White should be in the next coalition.

He must designate someone to form a government after the consultations, though there has been speculation that he will bring Gantz and Netanyahu together to explore options for a unity government.

Blue and White won 33 seats out of parliament’s 120, while Likud finished second with 31.

Members of the Joint List, Ayman Odeh speaks to the press in the presence of Ahmad Tibi (right), Osama Saadi (left) and Mansour Abbas in Jerusalem, yesterday.

“In this sensitive and important historical moment, we announce to our neighbours that we extend the hand of friendship and brotherhood to them,” Iran’s President said.

Food supply

11MONDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2019 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Tanzania not sharing information on Ebola: WHOREUTERS DAR ES SALAAM

Tanzania is refusing to provide detailed information on suspected Ebola cases, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in a rare public rebuke as the region struggles with an outbreak already declared a global health emer-gency.

Transparency and speed are key to combating the deadly haemorrhagic fever because it can spread rapidly. Anyone deemed to have been in contact with potentially infected people must be quarantined and the public warned to step up pre-c a u t i o n s s u c h a s handwashing.

WHO said in a statement late on Saturday that it was made aware on September 10 of the death of a patient in Dar es Salaam, and unofficially told the next day that the person tested positive for Ebola. The woman had died on September 8.

“Identified contacts of the deceased were unofficially reported to be quarantined in various sites in the country,” the statement said.

WHO said it was unofficially told that Tanzania had two other possible Ebola cases. One had

tested negative and there was no information on the other.

Officially, the Tanzanian government said last weekend it had no confirmed or suspected cases of Ebola. The government did not address the death of the woman directly and did not provide further information.

Despite several requests, “clinical data, results of the investigations, possible contacts and potential laboratory tests performed... have not been com-municated to WHO”, the UN agency said.

“The limited available official information from Tan-zanian authorities represents a challenge.” Officials in Tanza-nia’s health ministry could not be reached for comment.

Authorities in east and central Africa have been on high alert for possible spillovers of

Ebola from the Democratic Republic of Congo, where a year-long outbreak has killed more than 2,000 people. The WHO was heavily criticised by experts during West Africa’s 2014-2016 Ebola epidemic, which claimed more than 11,300 lives in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, for not moving more quickly to contain the out-break, which remains the world’s worst.

Last week the US health sec-retary, Alex Azar, criticised Tan-zania for failing to share infor-mation on the possible outbreak. The next day he sent a senior health official to Tanzania.

Uganda has already recorded several cases after sick patients crossed the border from Congo. A quick government response there prevented the disease spreading.

The 34-year-old woman who died in Dar es Salaam had travelled to Uganda, according to a leaked WHO document cir-culated earlier this month. She showed signs of Ebola including headache, fever, rash and bloody diarrhoea on Aug. 10 and died on Sept. 8.

Tanzania relies heavily on tourism and an outbreak of Ebola would likely discourage visitors. WHO spokesman Tarik Jasarevic said the organisation

stood ready to help Tanzania should an outbreak be con-firmed and that its country office in Tanzania had been reinforced with experts in patient care, infection pre-vention and other specialities.

“WHO is standing by to facilitate the delivery of various supplies, including vaccines and

therapeutics. This will occur upon request by the gov-ernment,” Jasarevic said, adding there were enough supplies of vaccine to provide if needed.

The Geneva-based agency had also shipped 1,000 sets of protective equipment to Tan-zania 10 days ago.

WHO’s statement is not the

first time international organi-sations have queried infor-mation from the government of President John Magufuli, nick-named The Bulldozer.

Earlier this year, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund contradicted the government’s economic growth figure for 2018.

Egyptian protesters gather during a demonstration in Suez, Egypt, yesterday.

Second night of anti-Sisi protests in EgyptAFP CAIRO

Egyptian security forces clashed with hundreds of anti-government protesters in the seaport city of Suez on Saturday night, firing tear gas and live rounds, said several residents who participated in the demon-strations.

In a rare show of dissent, hundreds of Egyptians in Suez took to the streets for the second night in a row heeding an online call for dissent against President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.

But they were met with security forces barricading streets and deploying armoured vehicles in downtown Suez cen-tring on Al-Arbaeen Street.

“There were about 200 or so people. They (security forces) fired tear gas, rubber and live

bullets and there were injuries”, a man who took part in the dem-onstration but declined to be named, said.

Another resident, who also preferred to remain anonymous, said the tear gas was so thick it had reached her apartment block a few kilometres away from the turbulent downtown area. “My nose started burning up. The smell was seeping through the balcony. I also saw some youth run and hide in our street”, the woman said.

A security source said there were dozens of protesters but could not provide further infor-mation about the authorities’ response.

The outbreak of protests came on the back of an online call posted by Mohamed Aly, a disgruntled exiled Egyptian busi-nessman in Spain, accusing Sisi

of rampant corruption and demanding he be toppled.

The country effectively banned protests under a 2013 law and a state of emergency is still in full effect.

Under the rule of general-turned-president Sisi, author-ities have launched a broad crackdown on dissidents, jailing thousands of activists and popular bloggers.

But that did not deter hun-dreds of Egyptians from heading to Tahrir Square — the epicentre of the 2011 revolution — in the capital Cairo on Friday.

At least 74 were arrested in Cairo alone, a security source said. Other demonstrations in several cities, including Suez, also took place where anti-Sisi slogans were loudly chanted in a show of defiance against his administration.

Health workers dressed in protective suits at an Ebola treatment centre in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo, in this August 4, 2019 file picture.

Sudan’s new PM launches probe into protesters’ deathsAP CAIRO

Sudan’s newly appointed prime minister has ordered an inde-pendent investigation into a deadly crackdown on protesters in June, which killed dozens of people and threatened to crush the country’s pro-democracy uprising.

Protest leaders had demanded the establishment of an international inquiry as part of a subsequent power-sharing agreement with the military, but the generals insisted on a Sudanese-led probe.

According to the protesters, at least 128 people were killed and hundreds wounded when security forces violently dis-persed the protesters’ main sit-in outside the military head-quarters in the capital, Khartoum, on June 3. Author-ities put the death toll at 87, including 17 inside the sit-in area.

The violence signalled a suppression of protests across Sudan that led to a breakdown in talks between the protesters and the ruling generals. The military had ousted autocratic President Omar Al-Bashir in April amid nationwide pro-tests against his nearly 30-year rule.

Sudan’s new civilian leader, Prime Minister Abdalla Hamdok, said on late Saturday that the investigation will be led by a

seven-member committee that includes a top judge, an inde-pendent figure and two attorneys.

The justice, defence and interior ministries will also be represented on the committee.

The probe, which should conclude its work within six months, could seek support from the African Union if needed, said Hamdok, who was headed to New York to attend the UN meetings.

An investigation by Sudanese prosecutors in July said the ruling generals did not order the deadly break-up, but blamed the widely condemned dispersal on paramilitary forces who exceeded their orders.

Prosecutor Fathel-Rahman Said said at the time that security forces were told only to clear a lawless area close to the protest camp, not the sit-in itself.

In the days leading up to the dispersal, the military said the lawless area near the camp had become a haven for “drug dealers and other criminals.” Troops from the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces however moved to disperse the protest camp on their own initiative, Said added.

He said eight RSF officers, including a major general, have been accused of crimes against humanity. He did not elaborate on how the investigation would proceed against the accused officers.

South Africa turning tide against rhino poachingREUTERS CAPE TOWN

Bringing local communities into mainstream conservation was vital to South African efforts aimed at curbing rhino poaching that has steadily declined from a peak of 1,215 animals killed five years ago, the environmental minister said yesterday.

South Africa, with one of the world’s largest rhino pop-ulations, is battling organised crime syndicates targeting its national and private parks as strong demand in Asian markets, where the rhino horn

is prized as an ingredient in tra-ditional medicines, fuels the slaughter.

While horns are widely believed to hold aphrodisiac properties, scientists say this is not so.

“We will redouble our efforts to make sure that communities who live on the borders of our parks benefit from conservation and the biodiversity economy so they are not vulnerable to recruitment by syndicated poaching operations,” Barbara Creecy, the Minister of Envi-ronment, Forestry and Fisheries, said in a statement on World Rhino Day.

She said rhino poaching has continued to decline, in part due to tougher court prosecutions and anti-poaching strategies, such as specialised sniffer dogs to help detect smuggled horns.

From January to June 2019, the number of rhino poached countrywide stood at 318, com-pared to 386 killed during the same period last year, Creecy said.

More than half of the rhinos killed this year — 190 animals — were found in South Africa’s vast Kruger National Park in the north of the country, where a total of 1,202 incursions and poacher activities were reported

in the first six months to June.“Although the battle to end

poaching is far from over, we are proud to say that our efforts as a government, as private rhino owners, and as concerned cit-izens, are paying dividends as we continue to implement the Inte-grated Strategic Approach to the management of rhino,” said Creecy.

Estimates vary but South Africa is believed to have up to 80% of an estimated global pop-ulation of over 20,000 rhinoc-eroses, making it the centre of the poaching crisis. There is an international ban on the trade in rhino horn.

5 Somali troops dead in attackANATOLIA MOGADISHU

The Somali National Army (SNA) yesterday morning repulsed an Al Shabaab attack in El-Salini area in Lower Shabelle region, killing 13 mili-tants.

Speaking to the media, Somali military official Mohamed Abdi denied claims by the Al Qaeda-affiliated Al Shabaab militant group which said they had killed 23 soldiers during their dawn attack.

“We lost only five soldiers, “Abdi told the media.

Somali leader to attend UNGA for first timeANATOLIA MOGADISHU

President Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed has left the capital Mogadishu to the US to attend United Nations General Assembly in New York for the first time since he took office in earlier 2017, the Somali presi-dential office said yesterday.

The president’s delegation include Finance Minister Abdi-rahman Duale Beyle and other senior government officials.

During his first official visit to the US, the Somali president will meet world leaders on the sidelines of the 74th season of the UN General Assembly con-ference in New York, according to a statement issued by the Somali presidential palace.

Last month Somali Pres-ident Mohamed Abdullahi Mohamed announced that he renounced his US citizenship voluntarily.

US man drownswhile proposingunderwater AFP/NAIROBI

An American man has drowned while proposing to a woman underwater at an idyllic island off the coast of Tanzania, a luxury resort said yesterday.

The woman Kenesha Antoine posted on her Facebook page footage of Steven Weber proposing to her through the window of their underwater hotel room at the luxury Manta Resort in Zan-zibar. “You never emerged from those depths so you never got to hear my answer, ‘Yes! Yes! A million times, yes, I will marry you!!’,” she wrote Friday in a post confirming his death.

Her video shows Weber swimming up to the window, and pressing a handwritten note against it which read: “I can’t hold my breath long enough to tell you everything I love about you, but everything I love about you I love more every day. Will you please be my wife, marry me.” He then pulled out a ring as Antoine squealed with joy while filming.

It is unclear what went wrong during the proposal at Pemba Island.

The global health agency said it was made aware on September 10 of the death of a patient in Dar es Salaam, and unofficially told the next day that the person tested positive for Ebola.

12 MONDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2019ASIA

Government likely to order 36 more Rafale jetsIANS NEW DELHI

Shrugging off the controversy around the previous deal, the Narendra Modi government has finalised a deal for another 36 Rafale fighter jets, according media reports.

An Indian Defence Research Wing report published on Sat-urday said the new order will be inked in early 2020.

The Indian Air Force has recently been handed over its first Rafale aircraft from France. The official handing over will take place on October 8 when

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh will be visiting France.

The purchase of another 36 Rafale fighter jets will take the fleet to 72, which will be key to bolster India’s air power, particularly in the aftermath of the Balakot strike, when the IAF went deep inside Pakistan to destroy terror training camps.

Ever since, both India and Pakistan have been keen to bolster their air power.

Considering India’s huge defence market, official sources here say the US is impressing upon India to buy its Lockheed

Martin jets. However, ever since Wing Commander Abhinandan Varthaman downed an F-16 flown by Pakistan, this aircraft’s reputation has gone down by many notches.

Even the F-21 isn’t something India is keen to procure, irre-spective of the pressure from US. But the Boeing F-18, which has both a carrier as well as an Air force variant, is under consider-ation of the IAF along with Rafale, say sources.

SAAB’s Gripen-E is out of the race, while the Russian Mig-35 and Sukhoi-Su-35 are not expected to give a tough

fight to Rafale.The IAF has decided to

procure 18 Su-30 MKI and 21 Mig-29 fighter jets from Russia. Upgradation of 272 aircraft of Su- 30 MKI fleet is also under serious consideration.

The recent Russia visit of PM Modi has accelerated this process.

Dassault Aviation, the creator of Rafale, and the US’ Boeing, have both extended their offers to help build India’s 5th generation AMCA fighter jet, pro-vided they win the lucrative con-tract to supply fighter aircraft to the Indian Air force.

Kalyan to face court on Friday in Babri Masjid demolition caseIANS LUCKNOW

A Special CBI court has issued summons to former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh to appear before it on September 27 in connection with the Babri Masjid demo-lition case.

Taking note of Bar Associ-ation’s information that Kalyan Singh’s gubernatorial term ended in first week of Sep-tember, special judge SK Yadav issued summons on the Central Bureau of Investigation’s pending application.

Besides Singh, former Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani, M M Joshi, Uma Bharti and others are also facing trial for conspiring to demolish the 14th century structure on December 6, 1992.

The trial is being conducted on a day-to-day basis. The court had asked the CBI whether the BJP leader was still holding a constitutional post.

The probe agency twice sought time, claiming it was yet to receive documents.

The court issued summons after the bar association pro-vided necessary information.

The CBI had pleaded that Singh had been charged in 1993 and Supreme Court had in its April 19, 2017 order said that he cannot face trial because he enjoyed constitutional immunity granted to Governors under Article 361 of Constitution.

Al Qaeda militant arrested in JharkhandAl Qaeda militant Mohammad Kalimuddin Mujahiri (with face mask) is being escorted by security personnel after he was arrested by the Anti-Terrorist Squad near Tatanagar railway station area, during a press conference in Ranchi, Jharkhand, yesterday.

Hindu forums want Constitutional changes for equal rightsIANS NEW DELHI

The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) and other Hindu outfits on Saturday sought amend-ments to Articles 28, 29 and 30 of the Constitution in order to emphasise the civilizational development of the Hindu culture and tradition and main-streaming of Hindu literature into the educational system.

The outfits, which have grouped under the banner of Hindu Charter Team, made these demands at a national conference that sought “Equal Right for Hindus” and pitched for non-interference of the state in the maintenance of the majority community’s temples and religious institutions.

At the day-long deliber-ation, which was inaugurated by VHP’s National Working President Alok Kumar, partic-ipants pointed out the over-whelming emphasis of foreign literature in the country’s existing educational system and attempts to keep the syllabus insulated from the vast reserves of Hindu literature.

Article 30 of the Constitution gives religious minorities the right to establish and administer educational institutions. All minorities, whether based on religion or language, shall have the right to establish and admin-ister educational institutions of their choice, it says.

Article 29 assures pro-tection of the interests of

minorities. Any section of the citizens residing in the territory of India or any part there of having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same, it says.

“Article 28 prohibits the majority community from propagating the knowledge of its ancient civilisation, culture and traditions to the future gen-erations,” said Dr Venu Gopalan, a Sanskrit scholar from Chennai.

One of the Team members cited ‘Macbeth’, a staple political satire from the 17th century English literature, to point out how well-absorbed it was in the Indian educational system. “’Macbeth’ has been popular throughout history and it speaks volumes of the rich English lit-erary tradition,” he said.

“But the Hindu literature, especially ‘Ramayana’ and ‘Mahabharata’, which hold exceptionally rich knowledge, especially from development aspect of a civilisation, have often being weighed-down in contrast with the foreign liter-ature,” said Dr Bharat Gupta, retired Delhi University professor.

According to a statement, the conference organisers have decided to submit a draft of Bill that seeks to amend Articles 12, 15, 19, 25 to 30 and inserts a new Article 12A, which is directed at protecting the rights of the majority and conserving its literary texts.

Khattar govt betrayed people, unemployment at all time high: SeljaIANS NEW DELHI

Eyeing a comeback in the Haryana Assembly polls, the Congress is all geared up to high-light the Manohar Lal Khattar-led government’s “betrayal” of the people, as unemployment rate is at an all time high in the state at 28 percent.

The 90 Assembly seats in Haryana will go to polls on October 21, while the results will be declared on October 24.

The Congress, which will soon announce its list of candidates, has also asked its leaders to mention

about them being “teetotallers” and “using khaadi” in their mem-bership forms for getting tickets to contest the Assembly polls.

In a candid interview, former Union Minister and Haryana Con-gress chief Kumari Selja said: “Every election brings challenges and this one is no different. The BJP government in the state made over 154 promises in its manifesto in 2014 but it has not been able to fulfil any of them.” “They bring in extraneous issues and do not even look at how the people of Haryana are suffering,” she added.

Accusing the state gov-ernment of using diversionary

tactics, Selja said: “They just want to white wash the real issues and raise different kind of matters, hoping that people will believe them and give BJP the mandate.

“But I am 100 percent sure that people have seen through this veil of lies unleashed by the BJP and they will teach the ruling party a lesson in the Assembly polls.”

The Congress, which was in power in Haryana from 2004 to 2014, lost to the BJP in the last Assembly polls held in 2014, when the saffron party won 47 seats while the Congress managed only 15.

Describing unemployment as the biggest issue in the state,

Selja said, “I am very sorry to say that under the Khattar-led gov-ernment, Haryana achieved the dubious distinction of having an unemployment rate of 28 per cent, the highest in the country.” Selja also slammed the BJP gov-ernment for indulging in ven-detta politics, saying the saffron party is afraid of Congress leaders as they are the voice of the common people.

“You can see how selective they are,” she said, referring to former Haryana Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and senior party leader and MLA Kuldeep Singh Bishnoi being on

the radar of investigating agencies.“They are targeting our

leaders because they fear the Congress,” she said, adding, “Congress has stood by the common people and now the BJP is targeting our leaders.” Slamming the BJP for misusing agencies like the Income Tax Department, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Selja said, “They may misuse the agencies, but I am sure that ulti-mately the law of the land will prevail, not just through the judi-ciary, but also during the elections.”

India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and US President Donald Trump attend “Howdy, Modi!” at NRG Stadium in Houston, Texas, yesterday.

Modi and Trump show unity between world’s largest democraciesAP HOUSTON

Deafening drums marked the entrance of President Donald Trump and Indian Prime Minster Narendra Modi as they clasped hands and walked across the stage in a packed Texas stadium yesterday, sending a message of unity between the world’s two largest democracies despite trade tensions.

Instead of dwelling on trade, Trump highlighted the growth of US exports to India, the billions of dollars India is spending on US-made defence equipment and joint military exercises with New Delhi.

“India has never invested in the United States like it is doing today,” Trump said, adding that “we’re doing the same thing in India.” The president also dis-cussed border security, an important campaign issue for Texas, which shares a border with Mexico.

“We are taking unprece-dented action to secure our southern border and stop illegal

immigration,” Trump said.About 50,000 Indian Amer-

icans attended the “Howdy Modi!” rally in Houston, where the crowd chanted “Modi! Modi! Modi!” as he took the stage to introduce Trump as “my friend, a friend of India, a great American president.”

Modi even used Trump’s political slogan to say the pres-ident had a strong resolve to “make America great again.” “When I met him for the first time, he said to me ‘India has a true friend in the White House,’”

Modi said. “Mr. President, this morning in Houston, you can hear the heartbeat of this great partnership in this celebration of the world’s two largest democracies.”

Trump said Modi invited him to the rally — one of the largest US gatherings of the Indian diaspora in history — when they met last month in France, and Trump told reporters yesterday that “I love India,” explaining his decision to attend.

Yesterday marked their third meeting in as many months and their first time together on stage. The leaders, who seem to have developed a rapport, are to meet again tomorrow on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Modi, 68, won the biggest re-election India has seen in years after some 600 million Indians cast ballots across the country earlier this year.

At the UN, Trump also scheduled a meeting with Paki-stani leader Imran Khan, who told the president recently that he would welcome his help mediating the Pakistan-India

conflict over Kashmir. India’s government has stripped the dis-puted Himalayan region of its semi-autonomy and launched a security crackdown last month.

Trump said US-India bonds are expanding, but tensions over India’s trade surplus with the US are simmering. In June, the US cancelled India’s special trade privileges that had allowed India to export certain goods with lower tariffs. India responded by slapping tariffs on more than two

dozen US goods.The US and India are dis-

cussing ways to negotiate at least a partial trade deal, which would let the president score a victory as he campaigns for re-election in November 2020. A partial deal could include Washington rein-stating India’s special tariff status if New Delhi gives the US con-cessions related to access to Indian markets, possibly in dairy and medical devices.

Several unresolved issues are

thwarting efforts to sign a larger deal. The US wants India to buy more American products to reduce its trade surplus with the United States, which today is some $24bn a year.

After the Houston event, Trump was travelling to Ohio, a key state for him in the 2020 presidential race. He and Aus-tralian Prime Minister Scott Mor-rison are to mark the opening of an Australian-owned Pratt Indus-tries plant in Wapakoneta.

About 50,000 Indian Americans attended the “Howdy Modi!” rally in Houston, where the crowd chanted “Modi! Modi! Modi!” as he took the stage to introduce Trump as “my friend, a friend of India, a great American president”.

13MONDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2019 ASIA

EEF facility for overseas Pakistanismay be introducedINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has ordered examining the possibility of introducing elec-tronic encashment forms (EEF) which will reduce the duration required to confirm the remit-tances of overseas Pakistanis for the import of vehicles and other items under the Federal Board of Revenue’s (FBR) baggage schemes.

The Commerce Ministry has also been directed to review the recommendation to relax the conditions for Pakistanis abroad on paying duties and taxes from foreign currency accounts for the import of vehicles and other items under the FBR baggage schemes.

The PM Office has sent a letter to the FBR and the com-merce ministry.

The PM Office has directed the FBR and Commerce Ministry to examine the practical imple-mentation of the recommenda-tions given for addressing the difficulties faced by overseas Pakistanis in obtaining clearance for special imports under the

baggage schemes while sending remittances for the payment of duties and taxes.

The FBR and the Commerce Ministry have been giving two weeks to work on the recom-mendations and inform the PM Office. The letter was written on September 11 and the FBR and the Commerce Ministry have confirmed that they have received it. They said the recom-mendations were being examined and the PM Office will be informed about the progress next week.

Sources said overseas Paki-stanis had written a letter to the PM Office, which was forwarded to the FBR.

According to the that letter, overseas Pakistanis are facing difficulties in sending back remittances and obtaining clearance for the import of cars

and other items because of the rupee devaluation and changes in duties and taxes.

To address these problems, it was recommended that custom duties to the tune of Rs200,000 be allowed to be paid in rupees instead of dollars. It was recommended that elec-tronic import forms and elec-tronic encashment forms be introduced.

The overseas Pakistanis maintained that they were being treated unfairly after the imple-mentation of the Statutory Reg-ulatory Order (SRO) 52(I)/2019 under which they had to pay custom duties in dollars and through their own bank accounts.

They added that the deval-uation of rupees and the duty tax structure is creating problems for them.

Kashmiri leader conveys gratitude to Turkish government for supportANATOLIA ISLAMABAD

A Kashmiri leader has expressed gratitude for the Turkish government and its people for standing by them in a difficult time when millions of Kashmiri are under a near-complete lockdown since August five.

Talking with a delegation of Turkish journalists in capital Islamabad, the convener of All Parties Hurriyat Conference Azad Jammu and Kashmir

chapter, Syed Abdullah Gilani, said Turkey and Pakistan are the two countries who raised voice and supported the Kashmiri people on every international forum. “We are thankful to the Turkish government and people of Turkey who have always stood by us,” Gilani said. ‘’Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu defended us in the Organization of Islamic Coop-eration meeting,’’ he added.

Gilani said that there are two countries in the world, Turkey

and Pakistan, and their great peoples who always supported them in difficult times.

Talking about the situation of Indian-administered Kashmir, Gilani informed that the valley has been completely discon-nected from the rest of the world, and Indian authorities put over eight million people in a cage.

“You can freely go and stay in Azad Kashmir but you couldn’t go to Indian side of Kashmir,” Gilani said.

Bus crash leaves 26 dead in Pakistan AP/ISLAMABAD

A bus crash in northern Pakistan killed 26 people yesterday after its brakes failed on a winding mountain road, police said. Another 20 passengers were injured when the bus smashed head-on into a dirt embankment, said Abdul Wakil, a local police officer.

Such road accidents are common in Pakistan, where motorists largely disregard traffic rules and safety standards on worn-out roads. Last month, a speeding bus fell off a mountainous road into a river in the northwest, killing 24 passengers. Rescue efforts were hampered yesterday by the remote terrain near the town of Chilas on the route between the cities of Rawalpindi and Skardu. That’s in the Gilgit-Baltistan area, part of the larger Kashmir region.

Presidential candidate Abdullah Abdullah arrives at a campaign in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, yesterday.

Britain announces £87m fresh fund for RohingyaANATOLIA DHAKA, BANGLADESH

UK has announced to provide a fresh fund of £87m to support the Bangladesh government and the UN joint response plan for the displaced Rohingya people in Cox’s Bazar.

The additional fund will be spent ensuring lifesaving aid including food, water and shelter, education, training and counselling to help the forced displaced nationals of Myanmar rebuild their lives, according to the British High Commission in Dhaka on Sunday.

Besides, over £20m will be provided to mitigate the eco-nomical and environmental impact in the host community caused by the Rohingya influx.

Since August 2017 UK has provided taking the fresh announcement to £226m, it added. UK is working closely with the government and also with its partners in the interna-tional community — other bilateral donors, the UN family, it said. “Our goal is to find a solution to this crisis so that the Rohingya can voluntarily return to Myanmar in safety and

dignity. And we remain com-mitted to ensuring that condi-tions are put in place in Rakhine State to allow returns to happen” the release read.

We are also acutely aware of the impact on the local com-munities in Cox’s Bazar. And we are also aware of the economic impact - with daily wages falling due to the competition; and valued health and education workers moving to work in the camps, it added.

The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world’s most per-secuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.

According to Amnesty Inter-national, more than 750,000 Rohingya refugees, mostly women and children, have fled Myanmar and crossed into Bangladesh after Myanmar forces launched a crackdown on the minority Muslim community in August 2017, pushing the number of persecuted people in Bangladesh above 1.2 million.

Since August 25, 2017, nearly 24,000 Rohingya Muslims have been killed by Myanmar’s state forces, according to a report.

Sri Lanka orders fresh probe into Easter suicide bombingsAFP COLOMBO

A fresh inquiry into the Easter suicide bombings that hit Sri Lanka killing at least 258 people was ordered by president Maithripala Sirisena yesterday, after concerns from the Catholic Church that current probes are not independent.

The government has blamed a local group, the National

Thowheeth Jama’ath (NTJ) for the April 21 attacks on three churches and three luxury hotels, while the Islamic State group also claimed responsibility.

Sirisena said the commission has wide judicial powers to gather evidence on those respon-sible for the bombings, and to probe security and intelligence lapses. The five-member panel is headed by a Court of Appeal judge and includes three other

judges and a retired civil servant. It is to report back with recom-mendations within three months.

The inquiry was launched amid fears voiced by the coun-try’s Catholic Church that a par-liamentary probe and police investigation into the attacks are not sufficiently independent.

While the newly-launched inquiry is being carried out by a cross-section of MPs, many o p p o s i t i o n m e m b e r s

are boycotting it. They say the commission is being used by political parties to deflect any responsibility for failing to stop the attacks.

Sirisena, who is also the min-ister in charge of law and order, has said that all those respon-sible for the attacks were either killed or under arrest.

A parliamentary public inquiry has heard evidence from intelligence and senior police

officials that Sirisena neglected national security issues and failed to convene regular national security council meetings.

The president has also been accused of failing to act on precise Indian intelligence.

Sirisena has denied the accu-sations, and sacked his top defence official and the intelli-gence chief after blaming them for the lapses.

Taliban delegation meets Chinese officialREUTERS/KABUL

A Taliban delegation met China’s special representative for Afghanistan in Beijing yesterday to discuss the group’s peace talks with the United States, a spokesman for the Islamist insurgency said. The meeting comes after US President Donald

Trump’s eleventh-hour cancel-lation earlier this month of the negotiations between his country and the Taliban, which many had hoped would pave the way to a broader peace deal with the Afghan government and ending a 17-year war.

The Taliban’s delegation travelled to Beijing and met

Deng Xijun, China’s special rep-resentative for Afghanistan, said Suhail Shaheen, the Afghan group’s spokesman, on his official Twitter account. “The Chinese special representative said the US-Taliban deal is a good framework for the peaceful solution of the Afghan issue and they support it,” Shaheen wrote.

Detained Rohingya couple dead in crossfireANATOLIA/DHAKA

A Rohingya couple under detention were killed in a late night police shootout in southern Cox’s Bazar district of Bangladesh, the home of above 1.2 million Rohingya refugees, local media reports said yesterday.

The deceased have been identified as Dil Mohammad (38) and his wife Jaheda Begum (27), residents of Leda Rohingya makeshift settlements in the district. Police have accused the deceased of having links with robbers and claimed that they had been killed in crossfire during an anti-robbery drive.

According to media reports, at least 10 Rohingya people, including the latest couple, have been reportedly killed in crossfire with police in last one month, marking the highest record extrajudicial killings of the persecuted Rohingya people in host country in a month.

In the last two years, at least 40 Rohingya people have been killed in crossfire, or police shootout in the host country.

The Commerce Ministry has also been directed to review the recommendation to relax the conditions for Pakistanis abroad on paying duties and taxes from foreign currency accounts for the import of vehicles and other items under the FBR baggage schemes.

Pakistani demonstrators riding bikes during a rally in support of Kashmiris in the Indian-controlled Kashmir during a protest in Karachi, yesterday.

Dengue epidemic: 10,000 test positive, numbers expected to riseINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

At least 10,000 people have tested positive for dengue in Pakistan with the number of victims of the epidemic sweeping the country expected to rise in the coming days.

Addressing a press

conference here yesterday, Special Assistant to Prime Min-ister on National Health Services, Regulations and Coordination, Dr. Zafar Mirza, said the federal government was in coordination with provinces to curb dengue outbreak and concerted efforts were being made to check it.

“A Dengue Control

Operational Center has been set-up in Islamabad which would daily review the dengue-related situation across the country review steps to control it,” Dr. Mirza said.

He added two hotlines will work round the clock and expert doctors would respond to the dengue-related queries to the

general public. Speaking about the number of reported cases, Dr Mirza said there were 10,013 dengue patients at present in the country out of which 2,363 were in Punjab, 2,258 in Sindh, 1,814 in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and 1,772 in Balochistan. “At present, our concentration is to keep an eye on the outbreak rather than

doing politics,” he said. “During the last 48 hours, the number of patients having increased with the number expected to rise in the coming 7-10 days.”

He added it their responsi-bility to suggest preventive measures to the people and special hotlines have been set up for the same.

Afghan election campaign

14 MONDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2019ASIA

Fresh clashes in Hong Kong but airport avoids disruptionAFP HONG KONG

Pro-democracy protesters clashed with riot police outside a mall in Hong Kong yesterday, with some activists vandalising a nearby subway station, but plans to disrupt the airport did not materialise.

Police fired brief volleys of tear gas and rubber bullets in the northern town of Sha Tin late yesterday afternoon, capping a day which saw thousands rally peacefully inside a mall before the mood soured.

Authorities reduced rail and bus links to the city’s airport while police stepped up security checks in a successful bid to stop a crowd from massing at the bus-tling transport hub.

The airport — the world’s eighth busiest — has become a frequent target for demon-strators pushing for greater dem-ocratic rights and police accountability.

Online forums used by the largely leaderless movement had called for a “stress test” of the airport yesterday, code for dis-rupting travel links or occupying buildings.

Instead thousands gathered inside a mall in the northern town of Sha Tin to sing protest songs and make origami cranes,

the latest rally in what has now been 16 consecutive weekends of protests and clashes.

Many shops inside the complex shuttered but the unsanctioned rally remained civil for much of the afternoon.

“Even if we are very tired, we can’t give up on our rights,” a teacher at the rally, who have her surname as Ching, said.

“If it (the movement) stretches to 100 days, 200 days or even 1,000 days and we still don’t get what we want, we will continue to come out.”

Tensions rose later in the afternoon.

Masked activists paraded a Chinese flag through the mall that had been torn down from a nearby government building. It was later thrown into a nearby river.

Groups of masked protesters then vandalised ticket machines

in Sha Tin’s subway before riot police rushed in to close the station down.

Before police arrived local television networks showed footage of a man with bruises and cuts to his face being harangued by pro-democracy protesters inside the station.

Increasingly brutal fights between opposing sides have broken out in recent weeks — a vivid illustration of the ideo-logical fissures now running through the international finance hub.

A standoff between police and a few dozen activists behind umbrella shield walls ensued but the protesters soon dispersed once tear gas and rubber bullets were launched at them.

Police snatch squads made multiple arrests.

Riot officers were also called in to rescue Patrick Nip, a min-ister in the Hong Kong gov-ernment, after his chauffeured car was surrounded by angry protesters, local news outlets South China Morning Post and RTHK reported.

Video posted online showed residents heckling a car that was surrounded by a large crowd which quickly ran away once riot police came onto the scene.

Millions of pro-democracy supporters have taken to Hong

Kong’s streets for the past three months in the biggest challenge to China’s rule since the city’s handover from Britain in 1997.

With few protester demands met, violent clashes have become more intense and frequent.

The protests were ignited by a now-abandoned plan to allow extraditions to mainland China.

But after Beijing and local leaders took a hard line, the movement snowballed into a much wider expression of rage at the city’s local government and life under Chinese rule.

Core demands from pro-testers include an inquiry into the police, an amnesty for those arrested and universal suffrage — all rejected by authorities and Beijing.

Earlier this month city leader Carrie Lam abandoned the extra-dition bill and called for dialogue but many have deemed the con-cessions to be too little and too late.

As a result, the protests show little sign of abating.

On Saturday police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse

hardcore activists throwing rocks and petrol bombs in two towns near the border with mainland China.

This weekend’s protest crowds have been noticeably smaller than some of the more recent rallies.

Protesters are aiming to draw out large crowds next weekend — the fifth anniversary of the start of a previous round of failed democracy protests — and on October 1, the 70th anni-versary of the founding of Peo-ple’s Republic of China.

Pro-democracy protesters gather during a protest inside the New Town Plaza shopping mall in Hong Kong’s Sha Tin district, yesterday.

Typhoon disrupts flights in Japan, South KoreaBLOOMBERG SEOUL/TOKYO

Hundreds of domestic flights in Japan were cancelled because of Typhoon Tapah, and the storm caused similar disruptions in South Korea as it moved to make landfall later yesterday.

Airlines operating in Japan had called off more than 420 domestic flights as of 2pm yes-terday due to the typhoon, the national broadcaster NHK reported. More than 390 flights had been cancelled in South Korea by 4pm, Yonhap reported.

The storm disruptions in Japan led ANA Holdings Inc. to earlier say it cancelled 151 flights, while Japan Airlines Co Ltd. called off 126 as of 4 pm.

In Japan, most of the cancel-lations centred on the south-western island of Kyushu. The typhoon battered Japan’s southern Okinawa islands on

Saturday, with heavy rain and strong winds, injuring 19 people, according to the Sankei news-paper. Around 2,500 households were without power in Nagasaki and Kagoshima prefectures as of Sunday evening, according to Kyushu Electric Power Co.

Tapah is expected to move up the strait between South Korea and Japan, and make landfall in South Korea on Sunday, packing wind gusts of up to 126km per hour, according to Korea’s national weather agency.

In South Korea’s south-eastern port city of Busan, one person was found dead on Sunday after the roof of her house collapsed under heavy rains, Yonhap reported. The typhoon’s strong winds knocked down some trees and titled a traffic light and a telegraph pole in the southern island of Jeju, it said.

Indonesian villagers flee as a forest fire rages near their village in Kampar, Riau province, yesterday. Indonesia is battling forest fires causing toxic haze across southeast Asia with aircraft and artificial rain. President Joko Widodo said the country was doing everything to put out fires.

Australia offers Trump only limited commitment on Iran: PMREUTERS MELBOURNE

Australia is not getting involved with the United States in its pursuit of aims in relation to Iran, beyond a commitment to freedom of navigation in the region, Prime Minister Scott Morrison said after talks with US President Donald Trump.

“There was no discussion about anything else,” Morrison, who made a state visit to the White House on Friday, told journalists, according to

a transcript. “There was an appreciation of our involvement in that particular operation which was I remind everyone is about freedom of navigation in the Straits of Hormuz.

“That’s what that is about. The other matters that are being pursued by the United States are matters that they’re pursuing.”

Trump last week approved sending US troops to bolster Saudi Arabia’s air and missile defences after the largest-ever attack on the kingdom’s oil facil-ities, which the United States has

squarely blamed on Iran. Tension between the United States and Iran has been rising since Pres-ident Trump abandoned the Iranian nuclear agreement last year and the attack on the oil facilities has spurred concerns of an escalation into a new war.

The US president had sig-nalled he would raise with Mor-rison a possible military contri-bution in Iran, although later he said the topic had not been discussed.

In August, Australia joined the US-led International

Maritime Security Construct (IMSC) in support of freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz. “I made it very clear when we announced our

involvement in that arrangement that it was very much about that freedom of navigation issue and that’s what it is about and that’s appreciated,” Morrison said.

He also praised Trump for what he said was a “restraint” in relation to Iran.

“And it was good to have the opportunity to confirm that again in the course of our discussions,” Morrison said.

“So I think that should provide some assurance. I mean Australia will make its decisions in our national interest.”

Truck hits crowdin China, 10 deadREUTERS/BEIJING

Ten people died and another 16 were injured after a truck lost control and hit a crowd of people at a traditional market in southern China yesterday, police said.

The truck was coming down an incline when the driver lost control in Huashi town in Hunan province, the county police said in a statement on their official microblog. The driver was arrested and a probe launched.

Bridging the gap: Yangon’s boom falls short across riverAFP YANGON

On her scruffy, downtrodden bank of the river, teashop-owner Khin works just a few hundred metres across the muddy water from Yangon and dreams of the riches promised by a new bridge l inking to Myanmar’s commercial heart.

“The quicker, the better,” 58-year-old Khin Than Myint said of the construction of the $168m bridge, from her shop in Dala township.

Spanning the Yangon River, the project is due to be com-pleted in 2022, easing the commute for thousands crossing the waters by boat from rural, underdeveloped Dala.

Currently the sick sometimes cannot even reach hospital before it is too late, Khin Than Myint says.

But with the bridge, “people will be able just to walk to Yangon,” she says smiling.

Residents of Dala have wit-nessed the changes over the river as foreign investors poured bil-

lions of dollars into Yangon.Five-star hotels and

gleaming shopping malls, brimming with luxury brands, now punctuate the skyline, com-peting for space with Shwedagon Pagoda’s golden spire.

In Dala, goats wander between rice paddies and resi-dents negotiate potholed roads on fume-belching motorbikes and tuk-tuks — forbidden in downtown Yangon.

A regular ferry service and a fleet of small wooden boats have long been the only link between

the two worlds. After nearly half a century of military rule, Myanmar started opening up in 2011.

Over the next seven years, Yangon attracted almost half of the country’s foreign investment, some $25.8bn, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.

While living standards are improving for many, a third of people languish in poverty, infra-structure remains patchy and much of the country is affected by conflict. Still Yangon’s boom has brought jobs for many of

Dala’s residents too — including the boatmen manoeuvring vessels through the river’s busy freight traffic.

Aung Myo Win has spent 14 years shuttling people across the river and is torn about the new bridge.

The 45-year-old knows it will likely leave him — and dozens of others — jobless, but he also sees the bigger picture.

“The bridge is for the people,” he said. “We must sac-rifice ourselves for the sake of development.”

China issues white paper on rights progressBLOOMBERG SHANGHAI

China said it has continued to improve the protection of people’s economic, political, social and cultural rights since the founding of the republic in 1949, the official Xinhua News Agency reported.

The white paper published by the State Council Infor-mation Office yesterday said Chinese people enjoy real democracy, according to Xinhua. Titled “Seeking Hap-piness for People: 70 Years of Progress on Human Rights in China,” the document said the nation has made regular con-tributions to the international cause of human rights, according to the news agency.

6.4 magnitude quake strikes off IndonesiaQNA/JAKARTA

A 6.4-magnitude earthquake jolted Indonesia’s eastern Maluku province early yesterday. There was no tsunami alert issued, Indonesia meteorology and geophysics agency said.

There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage.

Indonesia sits on the “Ring of Fire” and continuously suffers earthquakes and vol-canic eruptions that surround the Pacific coast.

Authorities successfully prevented demonstrators from massing at the city’s busy airport which has already seen a number of protests and disruptions in recent weeks.

Premier says his country’s engagement in US-led International Maritime Security Construct was limited to ensuring freedom of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz.

Forest fire rages in Indonesia

15MONDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2019 EUROPE

Swiss hold high-altitude wake for lost glacierAFP MELS

Dozens of people dressed in black went on a “funeral march” up a steep Swiss mountainside yesterday to mark the disap-pearance of an Alpine glacier amid growing global alarm over climate change.

Around 250 people including children joined the solemn two-hour climb up the side of Pizol mountain in northeastern Swit-zerland to the foot of the rapidly melting ice formation, situated at an altitude of around 2,700 metres near the Liechtenstein and Austrian borders.

“We’re here to bid farewell to Pizol,” Swiss glaciologist Mat-thias Huss said in a sombre speech after arriving at the glacier, one of the most studied in the Alps.

Eric Petrini, the chaplain of the Mels municipality where Pizol is located, called on “God’s help to tackle the enormous challenge of climate change”.

The speeches were accom-panied by the mournful tones of alphorns — a 3.6 metre, pipe-shaped wooden instrument. Some marchers also laid down flowers for the glacier.

Pizol “has lost so much sub-stance that from a scientific per-spective it is no longer a glacier,”

Alessandra Degiacomi, of the Swiss Association for Climate Protection, said.

Yesterday’s march took place as the UN gathered youth activists and world leaders in New York to mull the action needed to curb global warming.

It came after Iceland made global headlines last month with a large ceremony and the laying of a bronze plaque to commem-orate Okjokull, the island’s first glacier lost to climate change.

But unlike Iceland, yester-day’s ceremony does not mark the first disappearance of a glacier from the Swiss Alps.

“Since 1850, we estimate that more than 500 Swiss glaciers have completely disappeared, including 50 that were named,” glaciologist Huss, who works at the ETH technical university in Zurich, said.

Pizol may not be the first glacier to vanish in Switzerland,

but “you could say it is the first to disappear that has been very thoroughly studied.”

The logs kept since scientists began tracking the glacier in 1893 paint a bleak picture of recent rapid changes to the climate.

Pizol has lost 80-90 percent of its volume just since 2006, leaving behind a mere 26,000

sq metres of ice, or “less than four football fields,” Huss said.

Pizol, which sits at a rela-tively low altitude, was never very big.

According to Glacier Moni-toring Switzerland, or GLAMOS, it, like nearly 80 percent of Swiss glaciers, has been considered a so-called glacieret.

It has figured among some

4,000 glaciers — vast, ancient reserves of ice — dotted throughout the Alps, providing seasonal water to millions and forming some of Europe’s most stunning landscapes.

But Huss and other ETH sci-entists recently cautioned more than 90 percent of the Alpine glaciers could disappear by the end of this century if greenhouse

gas emissions are not reined in.Regardless of what actions

humans take now, the Alps will lose at least half of their ice mass by 2100, according to their study, published in April.

And in a subsequent study published earlier this month, the researchers indicated that the Alps’ largest glacier, the mighty Aletsch, could completely dis-appear over the next eight decades.

Yesterday’s “funeral” for Pizol provides an occasion to point out that climate change is not only melting glaciers but is endangering “our means of sub-sistence”, according to the organising groups, including Greenpeace.

It is threatening “human civ-ilisation as we know it in Swit-zerland and around the world,” they warn on the event webpage.

With this in mind, the Swiss Association for Climate Pro-tection recently presented the 100,000 signatures needed to launch a popular initiative, to be put to a referendum, demanding that Switzerland reduce its net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050.

The date for the vote has yet to be set, but the Swiss gov-ernment in August said it sup-ported the objective.

People taking part in a mourning ceremony as awareness to climate change, for the disappearing Pizol glacier, in Mels, Switzerland, yesterday.

Germany’s Greens promise to strengthen climate planREUTERS BERLIN

Germany’s Greens said yesterday they planned to use their strength in the upper house of parliament to sharpen a government climate protection package that disappointed many activists.

The party’s Winfried Kret-schmann — the popular premier of Baden-Wuerttemberg, one of Germany’s richest and most industrialised states — said the package had been dominated by piecemeal measures and failed to take the key step: introducing an “honest and ambitious carbon price”.

The climate package, unveiled on Friday after extensive haggling between Chancellor Angela Merkel’s con-servatives and her Social Dem-ocrat coalition partners, set an initial carbon price of about 10 euros per tonne, well short of the 40 euros many activists were hoping for.

The Federal Council, Ger-many’s upper house, represents the governments of the 16 states of the federation, in nine of which the Greens are a gov-erning party, meaning they have an influence over an absolute majority of seats in the chamber.

Annalena Baerbock, the Greens’ co-leader, said the

government had “wasted a his-toric opportunity”.

“We will use every means to get more done to protect the climate,” she told the Frank-furter Allgemeine newspaper.

The Federal Council can veto or amend laws that affect states’ finances and refer back all other laws to the lower house for reconsideration.

The 50 billion euro package, setting out a roadmap for the greening of Europe’s largest economy over coming decades, included incentives to buy electric cars, surcharges for domestic flights and extra money for the national railway.

But the carbon price, rising

from 10 euros to 35 euros by 2025, was received with wide-spread disappointment.

“The proposals are completely inadequate,” climate economist Volker Quaschning told RTL. “The government is acting as if we had 200 years. If we did, then the measures would be fine, but not when we only have 15.”

With environmental concerns surging up the list of voters’ pri-orities after two unprecedentedly warm summers, a spate of forest fires and the chord struck by Great Thunberg’s Fridays for Future movement, the Greens are soaring in polls, and are now vying with the conservatives for the top slot nationally.

Formes SS soldiercharged with incitement diesAFP BERLIN

A former SS soldier who faced charges for incitement and disparaging the memory of Nazi victims has died aged 96, German prosecutors said yesterday.

Karl Muenter had already been convicted in France over his role in the killing of 86 civilians, all men, in the northern French village of Ascq during World War II.

German prosecutors filed the latest charges against him in July after he made inflam-matory remarks in an interview broadcast on television in late 2018.

“I can confirm he has died” of natural causes, said Christina Pannek, a spokeswoman for the prosecutor’s office in Hild-esheim, Lower Saxony.

“The proceedings launched against him have therefore been halted,” she added.

Muenter had told journalists in an interview last November that those killed in Ascq were themselves to blame for their deaths.

He also disputed the fact that the Holocaust claimed the lives of six million Jews.

Muenter was 21 years old and a member of the “Hitler Youth” SS division on the night of April 1, 1944, when a train carrying some 50 soldiers of the division was slightly derailed by an explosion in an act of sabotage by the Resistance.

Albania inspects quake damages,sees over 100 aftershocksAP POGRADEC

Many residents in Albania’s capital of Tirana and the port city of Durres have not gone back to their homes after a 5.8 magnitude earthquake injured 105 people and damaged hundreds of buildings.

Authorities said the Saturday afternoon quake was followed by more than 100 aftershocks. It also damaged about 600 homes and temporarily knocked out power and water facilities in Tirana, Durres and some other western and central districts.

Many people fled their homes when the quake hit at 4:04pm, with at least 500 spending the

night in temporary shelters.Experts yesterdau inspected

damaged homes and buildings and raised more emergency tents. Defense Minister Olta Xhacka, speaking at a Cabinet meeting, said “luckily oil wells were not damaged.”

Prime Minister Edi Rama said he had phone calls from his Italian, French, German and other European counterparts offering assistance.

Johannes Hahn, EU’s budget and administration commis-sioner and former enlargement one, tweeted that “#EU imme-diately offered assistance.”

Located along the Adriatic and Ionian Seas, Albania is earthquake-prone and registers seismic activity every few days.

Police officers seen near tents at a temporary shelter after an earthquake in Tirana, Albania, yesterday.

Pizol “has lost so much substance that from a scientific perspective it is no longer a glacier”: Alessandra Degiacomi

Spain’s Socialists would maintain lead: PollsREUTERS MADRID

Spain’s Socialist party would win a November election and gain more seats, two polls showed yesterday, but it would fall short of a majority and would still need support from other parties to form a government.

The Socialists finished first in an inconclusive national election in April but acting Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez has failed to form a government with other parties, meaning the country is headed to its fourth election in as many years on November 10.

The two main traditional parties that have dominated the political landscape since Spain’s entry into democracy in the

1970s — the Socialist PSOE and the conservative People’s Party (PP) — would both gain seats in an election, the polls showed.

This is at the expense of the new parties that emerged fol-lowing the financial crisis at the beginning of the decade such as far left Unidas Podemos, centre-right Ciudadanos and far right Vox.

The Socialists would gain 11 seats to win 134, a GAD3 poll carried out for Vanguardia newspaper showed, still not enough for a majority of 176. Podemos would lose 5 seats, the poll showed. The combined left-wing bloc of the Socialists and Podemos would again fall short of a majority.

The Socialists and Unidas Podemos were unable to form a

coalition government after the April election despite months of talks.

A poll carried out by 40db and published in El Pais on Sunday gave similar results, with the Socialists and the PP gaining ground and the newcomers Unidas Podemos, Ciudadanos and Vox losing seats.

The polls paint a picture of a country no easier to govern than after April’s election with no one party or political bloc winning a clear mandate to govern.

Despite Spain’s political stagnation, its economy is doing well and ratings agency S&P raised its credit rating on the country to A from A- on Friday, citing balanced economic growth and improving budgetary condition.

AFP JOHANNESBURG

Britain’s Prince Harry, his wife Meghan and baby Archie are expected in South Africa today to begin their first official tour as a family since their son’s birth in May.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex will begin the 10-day trip in the coastal city of Cape Town — an international tourist desti-nation where stunning beaches and rolling vineyards sit alongside some of the country’s most violent townships.

“Our family will be taking its first official tour of Africa, a region of the world that over the past two decades has been a

second home to me,” said Harry on Instagram earlier this month.

“On a personal note, I can’t wait to introduce my wife and son to South Africa!”

Harry has travelled widely across Africa and jointly founded the charity Sentebale in 2006, to help support children affected by HIV, after spending a gap year in Lesotho.

Another Instagram post detailing the royal visit’s itinerary shows a picture of the smiling couple, followed by a photo of Harry’s late mother Princess Diana meeting landmine sur-vivors in Angola in 1997.

Diana famously walked through a cleared minefield in Huambo, clad in a protective

visor and vest to campaign for a worldwide ban on mines.

More than one million land-mines were planted during Angola’s 27-year civil war, which started immediately after inde-pendence in 1975.

Diana was killed in a car accident shortly after her trip, when Harry was 12 and his brother William — now second in line of succession to the throne — was 15.

Harry, 35, will follow in his mother’s footsteps with a stop in Angola next week, when he is scheduled to visit another mine-field in Huambo and remotely detonate a mine in the south of the country.

He will also travel to

Botswana and Malawi to promote conservation work and HIV prevention projects.

Meanwhile, mother and baby will remain in South Africa, where the Duchess will undertake various activities to raise awareness about women’s rights.

The couple, who had a trip to Australia, New Zealand, Tonga and Fiji last year, have kept a low profile since the birth of their son.

After the first five months of his life were spent largely shielded from the public eye, baby Archie will become one of the youngest royals to take part in an official visit.

Prince William’s son George,

6, accompanied his parents to Australia and New Zealand when he was eight months old.

While cameras will be fixed on the royal family’s latest addition, Meghan may feel under pressure to avoid anything judged controversial by the British public.

Despite a fairytale wedding that conquered hearts last year, the former American-born actress has come under fire from some newspapers for her expensive tastes and dealings with staff.

British tabloids have lashed out at Meghan for her lavish baby shower in New York and for guest-editing an issue of British Vogue

Royal baby Archie awaited in S Africa for first official trip

16 MONDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2019EUROPE

Russian seamen kidnapped off Cameroon freedAFP MOSCOW

Moscow yesterday said three Russian seamen abducted in an act of piracy off the coast of Cameroon in August have been freed and brought to Germany.

The Russians were part of a group of sailors, including Chinese and Ukrainian citizens, taken hostage in mid-August after an attack on their merchant

ships in the Gulf of Guinea. In a statement, the Russian

foreign ministry said they were “released from pirate captivity” and that their health was “satisfactory”.

They are due to return to Russia on Monday, it added.

The attacks took place off the port of Douala, located at the northeastern corner of the Gulf of Guinea that has become a hotspot of seaborne crime.

The total number of hostages taken in the attack is unclear. The Cameroonian navy reported the kidnappings at the time but was unable to give the number of those taken.

The Gulf of Guinea, whose coastline stretches in a huge arc from Liberia to Gabon, is noto-rious for piracy as well as oil theft, illegal fishing and human and drugs trafficking.

In recent years, the seas off

West Africa have become “the world’s worst for pirate attacks,” according to the International Maritime Bureau watchdog.

Attacks doubled in the Gulf of Guinea in 2018 compared to the previous year — the bulk of them due to piracy, it said.

The 17 countries bordering the Gulf of Guinea and adjacent coastline have limited surveil-lance and maritime defence capabilities.

Charity boat with 182 migrants waits to dock AP ABOARD THE OCEAN VIKING

A nonprofit-run ship carrying 182 migrants rescued on the Mediterranean Sea sailed back and forth between Italy and Malta while awaiting permission to dock at a European port, with its passengers growing increas-ingly worried about where they would wind up.

Over three days last week, the Norwegian-flagged Ocean Viking, a search-and-rescue vessel jointly operated by two aid groups, picked up 217 people from four unseaworthy boats in the central Mediterranean. The migrants had departed from

Libya. The island nation of Malta, a European Union member, on Friday allowed in 35 migrants who were rescued at the coun-try’s request in waters under its responsibility. The 182 remaining on the rescue ship are sleeping

on decks and floors, including a newborn baby and 13 other children under age 15.

“Is the EU aware of the situ-ation we are facing?” Kemo Kebbeh, a 25-year-old man from Gambia, asked representatives of SOS Mediterranee and Doctors Without Borders who were aboard the Ocean Viking.

He was referring to condi-tions on the ship but also to the danger and human rights viola-tions migrants face in Libyan detention centers after entering the country seeking the chance to set off for Europe in human traffickers’ boats.

Malta has forwarded Ocean Viking’s request for a safe place

to disembark passengers to Norway, France and Italy.

Erkinalp Kelisi of Doctors Without Borders said he had a hard time explaining to the migrants on board the Ocean Viking why they couldn’t be transferred to Malta like the 35 others. Malta and Italy so far have refused to accept any pas-sengers, deferring responsi-bility to other EU nations.

“They are all people. They are all equal, and the system of disembarkation that is imposed has to be the same,” Kelisi said.

According to the Interna-tional Organisation for Migration, 6,570 migrants have arrived in Italy by sea so far this

year and 2,260 in Malta. Both nations, typically the

nearest arrival point for ships crossing the central Mediter-ranean, want other EU members to share the load.

The 28-nation bloc hasn’t reached an agreement on an automatic system for deter-mining where rescued migrants are allowed to land and poten-tially seek asylum.

The Maltese government plans to host a meeting today with French, German and Italian authorities in an attempt to formalise a temporary deal to manage the standoffs that can keep migrants stuck at sea for week.

Politicians in favour of blocking the ships accuse NGOs of colluding with smug-glers. But data shows that most sea arrivals through the central Mediterranean do not happen through charity rescues.

Italy allowed the Ocean Viking last week to disembark at tiny Lampedusa island 82 migrants who were rescued during an earlier mission. But in a scenario that has played out several times before, the Italian government gave the authorisation only after Germany, France, Portugal and Luxembourg agreed to take a share of the group.

Migrants posing as volleyballteam blocked by Greece policeAFP ATHENS

Ten migrants posing as a volleyball team were arrested at Athens’ International Airport trying to travel with illegally obtained passports, Greek police said yesterday.

Police said the migrants, who had entered Greece without legal documents, arrived at the Eleftherios Ven-izelos airport on Saturday hoping the disguise would get them past controls more easily.

They wore matching outfits, carried matching sports bags and, for good measure, brought two volleyballs. But border police established that the passports they presented had been illegally obtained, and arrested the group.

According to police sources, they are Syrian nationals who had hoped to travel to Zurich with Ukrainian passports.

Migrants arriving in Greece often make great efforts to slip through closed Greek frontiers to reach other destinations.

According to the latest official numbers, there are more than 26,600 asylum seekers in overcrowded camps on Lesbos, Chios and Samos, the Greek islands at the fore-front of the migrant influx.

Irish border controlsneeded in no-dealBrexit: EU’s JunckerAP LONDON

The European Union will insist that border controls be put up along the Irish border if Britain leaves the bloc without a deal and the British government will be responsible for that, a top EU official said.

Jean-Claude Juncker, the European Commission pres-ident, said in an interview broadcast yesterday that the blame for that would rest squarely on Britain. Border con-trols could in theory go up soon after October 31, Britain’s scheduled departure date.

Brussels was “in no way responsible” for the consequences of a no-deal Brexit, Juncker said. “We have to make sure that the interests of the European Union and of the internal market will be preserved.”

How to maintain a fric-tionless border between EU member Ireland and Northern Ireland, which is part of the United Kingdom, is the thorniest issue in the Brexit discussions. An invisible border is a key com-ponent of 1998’s Good Friday peace accord that brought peace in Northern Ireland after decades of sectarian violence.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is insisting that the Irish

border provision in the Brexit deal negotiated by his prede-cessor, Theresa May, be scrapped. The so-called Irish backstop is effectively a guar-antee that no border will go up on the island of Ireland by requiring that Britain stick to EU trade rules — even though it won’t have any say in the for-mulation of those rules after Brexit - until the two sides have negotiated a comprehensive trade deal. That would leave Britain locked into the EU’s orbit for years.

British lawmakers rejected May’s deal three times this year, with many doing so because of their opposition to the backstop.

Johnson is trying to get the EU to agree to replace the backstop with “alternative arrangements” — a mix of tech-nology to replace border checks and a common area for agricul-tural products and animals cov-ering the whole island of Ireland.

Juncker said he is open to alternative arrangements, but noted that in a no-deal Brexit, an animal entering Northern Ireland could then enter the EU via Ireland if there are no border controls.

“This will not happen,” he said. “We have to preserve the health and the safety of our citizens.”

Britons march in southern Spain ahead of BrexitREUTERS MALAGA

Dozens of Britons marched through the southern Spanish city of Malaga yesterday to register their concerns about their uncertain status as Britain prepares to leave the EU.

Spain is home to around 300,000 Britons. Together with Portugal, the Iberian peninsula accounts for almost a quarter of all Britons living in Europe, UN data shows.

“We feel really forgotten

here in Spain,” said Michael Soffe, a 61-year-old businessman who has lived in Malaga for 30 years. “Many here are pensioners - will they lose their healthcare over-night, for example?” he added.

Protesters brandished European Union, Spanish and British flags and held banners reading “They’re trying to make us leave the EU” and “Take back control: My grandkids’ future”.

Spain is the most popular European retirement destination for Britons, with around a third of British residents aged over 65.

Among foreign nationals, they are by far the biggest users of Spain’s state-funded universal healthcare system.

Many are concerned they will lose their free access to Spanish healthcare, currently assured by the European Union, as a result of Britain’s exit from the bloc.

Acting Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who could be replaced following November elections, has sought to reassure Britons living in Spain, promising to protect their rights after Britain’s exit from the European Union.

Early Van Gogh works auctioned in BelgiumAFP GHENT

Two early works by Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh were auctioned in the Belgian city of Ghent yesterday, fetching near estimate prices that the organiser said were bargains.

The first work, a watercolour of flowers, was snapped up for 220,000 euros ($240,000), slightly more than expected, auctioneer Johan Kiggen said.

The second piece, a charcoal drawing of a jug, went for 140,000 euros, just below the estimated price.

“Everyone is happy,” Kiggen said, who added that buyers could only bid in person.

“The two works went for a very good price for the buyers,” he said.

The two buyers, who wished to

remain anonymous, were both Bel-gians and pledged to keep the works in the country, which was a request of the seller.

Kiggen said the works have been certified as authentic on several occa-sions, and are featured in Van Gogh catalogues.

Dated to 1883, the works bear little resemblance to Van Gogh’s iconic works. They were made before the troubled master was inspired by the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists in Paris.

Van Gogh is one of the most expensive Impressionist and modern artists, with 12 of his works having gone for more than $30m at auction.

His output of about 2,000 pieces, of which 900 are paintings, are mainly held in museum collections, which means they are a rarity on art market.

Erkinalp Kelisi of Doctors Without Borders said he had a hard time explaining to the migrants on board the Ocean Viking why they couldn’t be transferred to Malta like the 35 others.

People and British nationals wave European Union and Spanish flags as they take part in a protest against Brexit in Malaga, Spain, yesterday.

Another railstrike in FrancetomorrowAFP PARIS

France will be hit by another train strike this week over a looming pension system overhaul after Paris saw its biggest strike action in more than a decade earlier this month, national railway operator SNCF said.

Just two out of five of SNCF’s intercity services will be running during the strike tomorrow, along with three of five regional TER lines, the operator said, adding that high-speed TGV services would be a “little disturbed”.

Service on the main com-muter RER trains in the Paris region will be slowed, but the city’s transit operator RATP said the metro lines that ground to a halt during the mass strike on September 13 will be working “almost as normal”.

International rail, including the heavily used Eurostar lines, will be unaffected.

The September 13 strike was the first major protest against President Emmanuel Macron’s plan to implement a universal pension system that would do away with the more advantageous plans enjoyed by workers in state transport and utility companies.

Metro workers said the reforms would force them to work longer by removing their long-held rights to early retirement, secured decades ago to compensate for spending long hours underground.

France’s state auditor, the Cour des Comptes, has said the average retirement age for RATP workers in 2017 was 55.7, compared with 63 years for most French workers.

“We have to tell the French the truth... We are going to have to work longer,” Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said — the biggest since 2007 when former president Nicolas Sarkozy also pushed through pension reforms.

Director of the Kiggen’s auction house Johan Kiggen poses in front of two paintings by Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh in Ghent, Belgium, yesterday.

17MONDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2019 AMERICAS

Trump says he discussed corruption with ZelenskiyAP WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump said yesterday that he spoke to Ukraine’s new president about his summer election and the fact that “we don’t want our people, like vice-president Biden and his son” contributing to corruption already happening in the Eastern European nation.

Trump appeared to stop just short of acknowledging that he discussed potential Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden and Biden’s son, Hunter, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, during a July 25 tele-phone conversation that is now the basis of a whistleblower com-plaint against the president.

“The conversation I had was largely congratulatory, was largely corruption, all of the cor-ruption taking place,” Trump said before departing on a trip to Texas and Ohio. “Was largely the fact that we don’t want our people, like Vice President Biden and his son, creating to the cor-ruption already in the Ukraine.”

“Ukraine’s got a lot of problems,” he added. “The new president is saying that he’s going to be able to rid the country of corruption and I said that would be a great thing. We had a great conversation. We had a conver-sation on many things.”

A person familiar with the matter has said that Trump urged Zelenskiy to investigate Hunter

Biden, who worked for a Ukrainian gas company. The person wasn’t authorised to discuss the issue publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.

Trump insisted anew yes-terday that he said “absolutely nothing wrong” to Zelenskiy, describing the conversation as “absolutely a 10” and “perfect.” He did not answer directly when asked if he would release a tran-script of the conversation to the public.

The president also seemed to suggest that his assurances

that he behaved appropriately during the call should be enough to satisfy critics.

The White House did not immediately respond to a request to clarify the president’s comments referencing the Bidens.

After arriving in Texas, Trump told reporters he will look into releasing details or a tran-script of the call, but stressed that foreign leaders don’t want things like that to be made public and that they should feel free to speak frankly with a US pres-ident without concerns about

later disclosure. Trump said that if Ukraine released its own tran-script, it would be same as his version of the call.

Trump and Zelenskiy plan to meet on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly later this week.

The president has described the whistleblower as a “partisan” but has acknowledged not knowing the identity of the intel-ligence official who lodged a formal complaint against him with the inspector general for the intelligence community.

The complaint was based on a series of events, including the July 25 call between Trump and Zelenskiy, according to two people familiar with the matter. They were not authorized to

discuss the issue by name and were granted anonymity.

According to one of the people, who was briefed on the call, Trump urged Zelenskiy to probe the activities of Hunter Biden. Trump did not raise the issue of U.S. aid to Ukraine, indi-cating there was not an explicit quid pro quo, according to the person.

Biden said in Iowa on Sat-urday that “Trump deserves to be investigated” for “trying to intimidate a foreign leader, if that’s what happened.” Biden said Trump was motivated by politics “because he knows I’ll beat him like a drum.”

There has been no evidence yet of wrongdoing by Biden or Hunter Biden regarding Ukraine.

Michael Atkinson, the U.S. government’s intelligence inspector general, has described the whistleblower’s August 12 complaint as “serious” and “urgent,” but he has not been allowed to turn over the com-plaint to Congress, a move that he created a fresh clash between the government’s executive and legislative branches.

US President Donald Trump calls on a reporter as he answers questions before he departs to Texas from the White House, Washington, DC, yesterday.

Suspect in Chicago cop shooting, bike attack capturedAP CHICAGO

A man suspected of shooting and wounding a Chicago police officer on Saturday and of being the bicyclist who shot a woman in broad daylight near downtown days earlier has been captured, police said yesterday.

Officials announced at a press conference that Michael Blackman, 45, was apprehended following an armed encounter with officers. The individual was shot by police and no officers were injured, police spokesman

Anthony Guglielmi said, adding that a gun was recovered from the scene.

Authorities said Blackman is hospitalised in critical condition. He has not been charged in either shooting.

The officer was shot and wounded around 8:40am while serving a warrant on the city’s South Side. Guglielmi said police and federal agents then began searching the area for the suspect.

The wounded officer, whose name wasn’t released, is 40 years old and a 16-year Chicago police

veteran in the fugitive appre-hension team, Police Superin-tendent Eddie Johnson told a news conference at Christ Medical Center in Oak Lawn, where the officer was treated.

The officer underwent surgery and was hospitalised in stable condition. Doctors said the officer was shot once in the groin and twice in his lower left leg. He lost nearly a third of his blood despite applying a tourniquet on himself, Guglielmi tweeted.

“He came basically bleeding to death,” said Jane Kayle Lee, the trauma surgeon who

operated on the officer for about 2 hours. “He had already lost a significant amount of blood.”

Mayor Lori Lightfoot went to the hospital and met with the officer’s family.

“I ask that all Chicagoans continue praying for the officer and his family,” Lightfoot said at the news conference. “Also, keep all of our first-responders in our thoughts and prayers. They run to danger to protect us.”

On Friday, police released surveillance video from a bicycle shop showing Blackman at the counter getting a flat tire fixed

just minutes before he allegedly rode up to a woman and shot her in the back. Johnson said the woman underwent surgery and is expected to survive.

Two other officers were injured in an unrelated case early on Saturday. According to the police the officers responded to a call about a man with a gun inside of a South Side restaurant shortly after 4am. After the officers patted down the man and found his gun, he pushed past them, ran outside, got into a vehicle and drove off, dragging both officers before getting away.

Democratic presidential candidate, Senator Elizabeth Warren speaks at the Polk County Democrats’ Steak Fr, in Des Moines, Iowa, yesterday.

The conversation was largely the fact that we don’t want our people, like vice-president Biden and his son, creating to the corruption already in the Ukraine: Trump

Three dead, 4 hospitalised in suspected drug overdoseAP PITTSBURGH

Three people were killed and four others were hospitalised yesterday in what police said appeared to be a mass drug overdose.

The victims, all men, appear to have taken narcotics at the same time and in the same place in an apartment on Pittsburgh’s South Side, authorities said. It wasn’t immediately clear which drug or combination of drugs was involved. Investigators were interviewing survivors at the hospital.

All of the victims were wearing orange paper bands on their wrists. Police determined the victims initially went to a venue together, then headed to

the apartment where they overdosed.

“To be clear, this was not a case of a tainted drug being passed around or distributed in large volume at a large venue which could have affected even more people. It appears to have been isolated to a single location,” the Pittsburgh Department of Public Safety said in a statement.

“However, police are con-cerned about a tainted, poten-tially deadly batch of drugs in the community.”

Five of the victims were found in an apartment, one in an elevator outside the apartment and one on the street. The hospitalised victims’ condi-tions ranged from serious to critical.

Trump’s Ukraine call could justify impeachment: SchiffREUTERS WASHINGTON

If an investigation shows that US President Donald Trump pressured his Ukrainian coun-terpart to investigate former vice-president Joe Biden, then impeachment would be the only option, US House Intelli-gence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff said yesterday.

Trump and his allies, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, yesterday defended the president’s phone call and escalated their attacks on Biden.

Schiff had previously shied away from calling for

impeachment, but his comments on CNN’s “State of the Union” indicate his stance has shifted.

“If the president is essen-tially withholding military aid at the same time that he is trying to browbeat a foreign leader to do something illicit, to provide dirt on his opponent during a presidential campaign, then that may be the only remedy that is co-equal to the evil that conduct represents,” Schiff said.

Schiff said on July 25 that the only way Trump would leave office is to be “voted out,” while encouraging Democrats to make sure voters go to the polls in 2020.

Warren takes lead in latest Iowa pollBLOOMBER/IOWA

Elizabeth Warren took the lead in Iowa in a new state poll released yesterday, barely dislodging former vice-president Joe Biden from the No. 1 spot in the state, putting the two of them in a statistical tie.

Warren has the support of 22% of likely participants in the Iowa caucuses, up 7 percentage points from June. Biden landed in second place with 20%, down slightly from June. Though the result is in the poll’s 4 percentage point margin of error, it’s the first

time Warren has led Biden in the Iowa Poll series.

Bernie Sanders was in third place at 11% and Pete Buttigieg stayed in fourth place ahead of Kamala Harris, but dropped slightly to 9% of poll respondents.

Harris fell 1 percentage point from June to poll at 6%, while Amy Klobuchar and New Jersey Senator Cory Booker both polled at 3%. Billionaire businessman Tom Steyer, Congressman Beto O’Rourke, Hawaii Represent-ative Tulsi Gabbard and busi-nessman Andrew Yang polled at 2%. All other candidates polled

at 1% or less.Still, the field is fluid. Nearly

two thirds of respondents said they still haven’t made their final decisions and could be per-suaded to support another candidate.

The Iowa caucuses lead off the nominating contest for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination on February 3.

The Des Moines Register/CNN/Mediacom Iowa poll of 602 likely 2020 Democratic caucus participants was conducted by Selzer & Co from September 14 to 18.

‘Downton Abbey’ beats Brad Pitt filmBLOOMBERG/WASHINGTON

Film fans had clear choices to make this weekend: a new picture with the British aristo-crats of TV’s “Downton Abbey,” or “Ad Astra” starring Brad Pitt as an astronaut, or “Rambo: Last Blood” featuring aging action hero Sylvester Stallone.

And the clear winner was “Downton Abbey.” It’s the biggest opening ever for one of

Comcast Corp.’s Focus Features films.

Based on the TV series that first aired in the US in 2011, “Downton Abbey” opened with weekend sales of $31m in North American theatres, researcher Comscore Inc. said yesterday. The period drama was expected to bring $22m to $24m.

“Downton Abbey” benefited from 85% approval by critics on the Rotten Tomatoes website.

That may have helped the picture expand its audience beyond the older female demo-graphic that was its anticipated target group. The previous top opening for a Focus Features film was “Insidious: Chapter 3” at $22.7m in 2015. Fox’s “Ad Astra” opened in second place with sales of $19.2m. It was expected to bring in $16m to $19m.”Rambo: Last Blood,” opened with sales of $19m.

Chinese tourists dead in Utah buscrash identifiedAP PANGUITCH

Authorities identified the four Chinese tourists killed in a bus crash in southern Utah.

Three women and one man perished in the crash on a highway running through the red-rock landscape of southern Utah on Friday. The victims have been identified as Ling Geng, 68, Xiuyun Chen, 67, Zhang Caiyu, 62, and Zhongliang Caiyu, 65. They were all from Shanghai, China.

They were part of a tour group, organised by Shanghai Zhuyuan International Travel Agency, that was made up of 29 tourists and one person leading the group. They come from Shanghai and the nearby prov-inces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Heilongjiang, according to a news report on huanqiu.com.

Five passengers remained in critical condition, and the death toll could rise, Utah Highway Patrol Sgt. Nick Street said. “All 31 people on board were hurt. Twelve to 15 on board were considered to be in critical condition shortly after the crash, but several of them have since improved. Not eve-ryone was wearing a seatbelt, as is common in tour buses.”

The crash happened near a highway rest stop a few miles from southern Utah’s Bryce Canyon National Park, an oth-erworldly landscape of narrow red-rock spires.

18 MONDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2019AMERICAS

UN rights chief feels ‘sorry’ for Brazil under BolsonaroREUTERS SANTIAGO

UN human rights chief Michelle Bachelet, who earlier this month came under personal attack from Brazilian president Jair Bolsonaro, said she feels sorry for Brazil, according to a Chilean media report published yesterday.

Bolsonaro, a far-right former army captain, accused Bachelet of “meddling” in Bra-zil’s affairs after she raised con-cerns about a jump in killings by Rio de Janeiro police, back-tracking on democratic norms and attacks on indigenous communities.

He also took aim at the former Chilean president herself as well as her father, an air force general who remained loyal to socialist president Salvador Allende after Chile’s 1973 mil-itary coup and died in jail.

“(Bachelet) forgets that the only reason (her) country isn’t like Cuba is thanks to those who had the courage to put a stop to the left in 1973,” Bolsonaro wrote. “Among those commu-

nists was her ... father.”In an interview with Chilean

national television due to be screened today, Bachelet responded.

“I was asked in a press con-ference about the situation in Brazil and we gave the infor-mation that we have, which is the number of people who have been killed and the difficulty for civil society to continue doing the things they were doing before,” she was quoted as telling TVN.

Asked specifically about Bol-sonaro’s reaction to her crit-icism, she alluded to Brazil’s own military dictatorship between 1964-1985, which Bol-sonaro has praised as “glorious”.

“How I take things depends on who is saying them... So if someone is saying that their country has never been under dictatorship, that there has never been any torture there... well then let him say that the death of my father by torture ensured that Chile did not become Cuba. The truth is that I feel sorry for Brazil.”

Duque seeks international sanctions on Venezuela REUTERS BOGOTA

Colombian President Ivan Duque (pictured) called for coordinated international sanctions targeting Venezuela to help stop President Nicolas Maduro’s support for Colombian rebels and drug traf-fickers from destabilising Latin America.

Duque, who accuses Maduro of providing a safe haven for Colombian rebel fighters from the now-demobilised FARC guerrilla group and the still-active ELN rebels, compared the Venezuelan leader to former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, who was put on trial for alleged war crimes in con-flicts that destabilised the

Balkans.“We should look at com-

munal sanctions and actions so that the threat of (Venezuela) protecting terrorism in its ter-ritory ends,” Duque said before traveling to the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York.

“ T h e i n t e r n a t i o n a l

community must understand that the dictatorship has to come to an end soon because the humanitarian tragedy, in addition to the consolidation of a dictatorial regime that is coex-isting with drug cartels and with terrorism, is a threat for the

whole Western hemisphere and for the stability of the world.”

Maduro accuses Colombia of preparing to attack Venezuela, and has repeatedly warned of an invasion coordinated with the US government.

Latin American countries could invoke the Inter-American Treaty of Reciprocal Assistance, known by its Spanish initials TIAR, against Maduro, Duque said. The treaty considers an attack on any of the signatories to be an attack on them all.

“The TIAR has been invoked many times and many times with success, but the invocation of it doesn’t necessarily have to refer in an explicit way to military actions,” Duque said. “What’s important first is coordinated

action.”Washington, which has

levied several rounds of sanc-tions against Maduro’s gov-ernment, has expressed hope that European nations will also impose sanctions in the coming months.

Most western nations con-sider Maduro illegitimate —saying he secured a second term last year via a fraudulent vote. Colombia is among the countries which back opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s rightful leader.

Maduro said Guaido is a US puppet seeking a coup.

Colombia stands ready to confront any attack by former members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia

(FARC)rebels, a group of whom recently rearmed, Duque said.

“When they decide to enter Colombian territory we’ll be here waiting with all of the strength of the armed forces,” Duque said. “You can never minimise an effort to defeat terrorism.”

Colombia has lately come under pressure from the Trump administration to reduce the cul-tivation of coca, the base ingre-dient in cocaine, which hit record levels in recent years.

But Duque said the fight to eradicate half of the more than 200,000 hectares of the plant by 2023 is his country’s own.

“The fight against drug traf-ficking is a fight of conviction, of principles, we don’t do it because of pressure from anyone.”

US, Honduras discuss temporary work opportunitiesREUTERS WASHINGTON

The United States and Honduras are discussing how to increase temporary legal employment opportunities for Hondurans in the United States, as the govern-ments work to hammer out details of an immigration agreement.

In a joint statement issued yesterday, the governments said they would have another round

of meetings next week “to ensure that our enhanced cooperation conforms to each nations’ legal requirements while also advancing our mutual objectives.”

This week in Tegucigalpa, officials also discussed how to “enhance collaboration in the areas of law enforcement and information-sharing, bolster regional border security, and s t r e n g t h e n m i g r a t i o n protections.”

Acting US Homeland Security Secretary Kevin McAleenan has waged a campaign in recent months to seal immigration deals with the Northern Triangle coun-tries of Central America — Gua-temala, Honduras and El Sal-vador - from where many immi-grants arriving at the US southern border set out.

Guatemala has signed a so-called “safe third country” deal with the United States that requires asylum seekers who

travel through Guatemala on the way to the US-Mexico border to ask for refuge in Guatemala first, instead of in the United States.

The Guatemalan Congress, however, has not ratified the deal. McAleenan announced a deal with El Salvador on Friday to strengthen the Central American country’s capacity to receive asylum seekers, though he did not detail what the pact would entail.

Honduran President Juan

Orlando Hernandez said this week “we have to construct an agreement across the region, conversing with Mexico, Gua-temala and the United States.”

The joint statement said that the meetings “demonstrate the commitment of both govern-ments to work together as trusted allies to address shared regional challenges. They rec-ognise Honduras’ progress in the areas of security and migration.”

Ivan Duque compared Maduro to former Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic, who was put on trial for alleged war crimes in conflicts that destabilised the Balkans.

Firefighters in Bolivia lose hope of taming blazesREUTERS CONCEPCION

Bolivian volunteer firefighters, exhausted from battling blazes sweeping rapidly across the country’s lowlands, are starting to lose hope and retreat from the front lines of some infernos in the drought-stricken region.

The fires this year are Bolivia’s worst in at least two decades, with the size of burned land across the country nearly doubling in under three weeks, destroying swaths of biodiverse forest and ranches and farms that sustain thousands of people.

In Concepcion, despite nearly two months of non-stop firefighting, blazes that had been put out in surrounding dry forests have reignited while others continue to spread toward the toward the Noel Kempff Mercado National Park, a gateway to pristine Amazonian rainforest.

Nothing has been controlled. The fires continue,” said Elias Johns, the deputy governor of the

province of Nuflo Chavez, where Concepcion is located.

While helicopters have doused flames around Con-cepcion, the Boeing super-tanker 747 that Bolivian President Evo Morales ordered to battle blazes across the country has not yet made it here. The heat and smoke are so intense along part of the front lines that firefighters cannot remain working for more than several minutes at a time.

Local firefighters with Bolivia’s volunteer-based force said they are poorly equipped with little more than backpacks of water, hoses and machetes, lacking heavy machinery to clear debris and stop fires from advancing.

Some 700 to 800 volunteer firefighters have gone home, Johns said. The province now mostly relies on foreign units from Argentina and France and Bolivian soldiers sent to help.

Many volunteer firefighters are demoralised after working for weeks in smoke-filled land-scapes scattered with the charred remains of animals and trees. Four firemen have also died, one by heart attack and three while bathing in a local lake.

“It’s physically and

emotionally taxing,” said Shayir Rezvani, a university student who is one of around 30 fire-fighters in the province’s remaining volunteer unit.

Authorities in Concepcion have set up a special clinic to tend to people suffering respi-ratory problems from the smoke.

A resident fighting wildfires in Santa Monica community near Concepcion, Bolivia, yesterday.

Argentinia’s former president and vice-presidential candidate for the Frente de Todos party, Cristina Kirchner (second left), raising hands with Argentina’s former economy minister and candidate for Buenos Aires Governor for the Frente de Todos party, Axel Kicillof (second right); La Matanza Mayor Veronica Magario (right) and former La Matanza mayor and mayoral candidate for La Matanza for the Frente de Todos party, Fernando Espinoza, during a campaign rally in La Matanza, Buenos Aires province, yesterday.

Election campaign in Argentina

Missing US marine found safe at Texas rest stopAP RICHLAND

A US marine believed to have left Arizona for California’s Camp Pendleton never arrived, but was found days later at a Texas rest area, unharmed.

Lance Cpl Job Wallace was taken into custody on Saturday night by Naval Criminal Inves-tigative Service and other law enforcement officers at a rest area in Navarro County, according to a NCIS statement cited by The San Diego Union-Tribune.

The 20-year-old had last been seen leaving a friend’s house in Surprise, Arizona, last Monday night, his mother, Stacy Wallace, said. He was due back at Camp Pendleton after a three-day leave that took him home to the suburbs west of Phoenix and a camping trip.

About an hour south of Dallas, Navarro County is more than 1,770km east of Surprise

and in the opposite direction from Camp Pendleton in Southern California.

The statement from Kurt Thomas, the special agent in charge of the NCIS Marine Corps West field office, did not include details about how Wallace was found or what he was doing.

Stacy Wallace had said her son loved the Marines and was excited to get back to Camp Pendleton, having been recently promoted.

Wallace’s mother had said law enforcement officials told her that her son’s phone was last pinged Monday night in Arizona. But a Border Patrol camera spotted his truck the next morning traveling eastbound on Interstate 10 near Fort Hancock, Texas, southeast of El Paso.

Thomas’ statement thanked law enforcement partners in Texas, Arizona and on the federal level “for their aid in bringing this to a safe resolution.”

Republicans scrap 2020 presidential primary in Alaska

AP ANCHORAGE

The Alaska Republican Party has canceled holding a presi-dential primary in 2020.

In a statement, the party’s State Central Committee passed a rule saying a primary “would serve no useful purpose” because Republican Donald Trump is president.

Earlier this month, Repub-lican leaders in Nevada, South Carolina and Kansas voted to scrap their presidential nomi-nating contests in 2020.

Canceling primaries, cau-cuses and other voting is not unusual for the party of the White House incumbent seeking a second term. Doing so allows Trump to try to consolidate his support as Democrats work to winnow their candidates.

Lorena downgraded to tropical stormAFP MEXICO CITY

Hurricane Lorena was down-graded to a tropical storm as it swirled in the Gulf of California off northwest Mexico, after making landfall near the Los Cabos beach resort, the Mexican hurricane monitor said.

With maximum sustained winds of 85kph, the storm is expected to bring heavy rains to Baja California Sur and the neighboring state of Sinaloa as it moves north at 19kph, CONAGUA said.

No damage or casualties were reported after Lorena made landfall on Friday at Los Cabos, in Baja California.

19MONDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2019 HOME

QRCS, Turkish counterpartdiscuss promoting cooperationTHE PENINSULA DOHA

A delegation from the Turkish Red Crescent visited Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) yesterday, as part of a short stay in Qatar to hold meetings with government organisations and NGOs.

The delegation comprised with Dr. Ibrahim Altan, Director-General, Yasir Feten, Adviser to the General Manager, Rafa Al-Turkmane, Chairman of Basiret Foundation and Advisor to the General Manager, and Ubaidullah Saken, Financing Fund Manager.

They were received by Ali bin Hassan Al Hammadi, Secretary-General of QRCS, Adel Al Baker, Director of the Office of QRCS President, and Dr. Fawzi Ous-sedik, Head of International Relations.

Al Hammadi welcomed the guests and highlighted the close relations between the two coun-tries and organisations, in light of their common humanitarian mission.

Dr. Altan wished to see stronger cooperation in many fields in the most affected areas, particularly for Syrians both in Syria and Turkey. A memorandum of understanding (MoU) is pre-pared to extend the license of QRCS’ representation mission in Gaziantep for five years.

The two parties agreed to sign a broader framework agreement to work together on aid projects for the victims of disasters and conflict. The new pact will ensure closer coordination, avoidance of duplication, and access to as many beneficiaries as possible.

The proposed projects to be

implemented included economic empowerment, water system repair, and establishment of social care centres for women and children, in coordination with government authorities.

QRCS Secretary-General also visited international event at Hamad bin Khalifa University (HBKU) College of Islamic Studies (CIS), Education City. Al Hammadi took a tour of the Maker Majlis: Islam in a Global World, an event that attracts wide local and inter-national attendance.

There is a section for QRCS, where the volunteers

communicate with the visitors. Also, the shelter tents and field hospital are displayed as inno-vative equipment used in relief operations.

Dr. Mohamed Evren Tok, Assistant Dean for Innovation and Community Engagement at CIS, said: “Over the period from Sep-tember 22 to 25 , we hold an event called ‘Maker Majlis: Islam in a Global World’. The idea behind this event is to bring the Sus-tainable Development Goals (SDGs) to a Qatari majlis. So, the venue is designed like a large majlis area, with a lot of

organisations representing humanitarian action in the Muslim world, social entrepreneurship, and different organisations that revolve around youth empow-erment, capacity-building, and also entrepreneurship.

He said that QRCS has been a very crucial and very supportive organisation, by providing a refugee tent experience. The stu-dents and the public in the morning and afternoon are going to see the refugee camp expe-rience and better connect what they are discussing in Maker Majlis with the real-world experience.

The opening of the event will be attended by Minister of State, H E Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kawari. After-wards, the event will end with the distribution of the SDG awards, which is happening for the first time in Qatar.

Turkish humanitarian delegation during their visit to Qatar.

The two parties agreed to sign a broader framework agreement to work together on aid projects for the victims of disasters and conflict. The new pact will ensure closer coordination, avoidance of duplication and access to as many beneficiaries as possible.

CROSSWORD

Rambo must confront his past and unearth his ruthless combat skills to exact revenge in a final mission.

RAMBO: LAST BLOOD

Note: Programme is subject to change without prior notice.

Finals (2D/Malayalam) 2:15pm; The Zoya Factor (2D/Hindi) 9:00pm; Ad Astra (2D/Adventure) 7:00pm;Rambo: Last Blood (2D/Action) 7:00 & 9:15pm; Valmiki (2D/Telugu) 11:00pm; Kaappaan (2D/Tamil) 2:15, 8:00 & 11:00pmPrassthanam (2D/Hindi) 2:30pm The Big Trip (2D/Animation) 5:00pmPorinju Mariam Jose (2D) 8:45 & 11:30pm

Kaappaan (2D/Tamil) 10:45am, 5:00, 8:15 & 11:30;Rambo: Last Blood (2D/Action) 10:30am, 12:45, 3:00, 5:15, 7:30, 9:45pm & 12:00midnight; Love Action Drama (2D/Malayalam) 10:45am, 4:00 & 9:15pm; Pattabi Raman (2D/Malayalam) 2:00pm; Finals (2D/Malayalam) 1:30, 6:45pm & 12:00midnight

LANDMARK

AL KHOR

Kaappaan (2D/Tamil) 6:30, 7:30, 9:30 & 10:30pm

Finals (2D/Malayalam) 9:30pm

Pattabi Raman (2D/Malayalam) 9:15pm

Prassthanam (2D/Hindi) 6:30pm

The Zoya Factor (2D/Hindi) 6:30pm

ASIAN TOWN

ROXY

FLIK Mirqab Mall

Ad Astra (2D/Adventure) 12:30, 1:00, 3:30, 6:30 & 6:50pm Al Kanz 2 (2D/Arabic) 9:45pmBandobast (2D/Telugu) 6:30 & 10:00pmFinal (2D/Malayalam) 4:10pmKaappaan (2D/Tamil) 12:30, 3:45, 7:00 & 10:15pmPrassthanam (2D/Hindi) 3:50 & 8:20pmThe Big Trip (2D/Animation) 12:30, 2:20 & 4:20pm Valmiki (2D/Telugu) 12:30 & 10:00pm

47 Meters Down: Uncaged (2D/Adventure) 10:40, 11:50am, 2:15, 4:40, 7:05, 9:30, 11:55pm & 0:30amAd Astra (2D/Adventure) 10:25am, 12:50, 3:15, 5:40, 8:05 & 10:30pm; Aladdin 12:30 & 3:00pm Angel Has Fallen (2D/Action) 10:10am, 12:30, 5:30, 7:50, 10:10pm & 0:10am; Dora And The Lost City Of Gold (2D/Adventure) 10;10am & 2:05pm; Al Kanz 2 (2D/Arabic) 6:00, 8:30 & 11:00pm; IT: Chapter 2 (2D/Horror) 5:50, 7:30 & 9:00pm; Kaappaan (2D/Tamil) 10:40pm; Lion King 10:50am, 1:10 & 3:30pmRambo: Last Blood (2D/Action) 10:20am, 11:20am, 12:20, 1:20, 2:20, 3:20, 4:20, 5:20, 6:20, 7:20, 8:20, 9:20, 11:20pm & 0:20am; The Angry Birds Movie 2 12:10 & 4:05pm

Kaappaan (2D/Tamil) 2:00, 8:00 & 11:00pm; The Zoya Factor (2D/Hindi) 2:30 & 11:30pm;Finals (2D/Malayalam) 2:15pm; Pattabi Raman (2D/Malayalam) 5:00pm; Nikka Zaildar 3 (2D/Punjabi) 4:45pm; Valmiki (2D/Telugu) 5:00pm; Diego Mardona 7:00pm; Al Kanz 2 (2D/Arabic) 9:15pm; Ad Astra (2D/Adventure) 7:30 & 9:00pm; Rambo: Last Blood (2D/Action) 7:15 & 9:45pm; Prassthanam (2D/Hindi) 11:30pm; Ittymani (2D/Malayalam) 11:15pm; Nikka Zaildar 3 (2D/Punjabi) 4:45pm;

ROYAL PLAZA

Valmiki (2D/Telugu) 2:00pm; Finals (2D/Malayalam) 2:00pm; Nikka Zaildar 3 (2D/Punjabi) 2:15pm; Kaappaan (2D/Tamil) 2:00, 8:00 & 11:00pm; The Zoya Factor (2D/Hindi) 4:30pm; Pattabi Raman (2D/Malayalam) 4:30pm; The Lion King (2D/Drama) 5:00 & 7:00pm; Rambo: Last Blood (2D/Action) 7:00 & 11:30pm; Chhichhore (2D/Hindi) 5:00pm; Pal Pal Dil Ke Paas (2D/Hindi) 8:45pm; Ad Astra (2D/Adventure) 9:15pm; Prassthanam (2D/Hindi) 11:30pm

MALL

20 MONDAY 23 SEPTEMBER 2019MORNING BREAK

Georgia Envoy meets Editor-in-Chief of The PeninsulaThe Editor-in-Chief of The Peninsula, Dr. Khalid bin Mubarak Al-Shafi, yesterday welcomed the Ambassador of Georgia to the State of Qatar, Nikoloz Revazishvili, along with other embassy officials. The Ambassador was briefed about the evolution of The Peninsula over 20 years since its establishment, as well as the paper’s mission and vision. The Editor-in-Chief and the Georgian Envoy discussed the close bilateral relations between Qatar and Georgia in various fields, as well as further cooperation between the Embassy of Georgia in Qatar and the newspaper. PIC: QASSIM RAHMATULLAH/THE PENINSULA

2015-2019 set to be hottest period on recordAFP UNITED NATIONS

A damning new UN report published yesterday said the world is falling badly behind in the race to avert climate disaster as a result of runaway warming, with the five-year period ending 2019 set to be the hottest ever.

It comes ahead of a major UN climate summit Monday that will be attended by more than 60 world leaders, as Sec-retary-General Antonio Guterres pushes for countries to increase their greenhouse gas reduction targets.

The report “highlights the urgent need for the devel-opment of concrete actions that halt global warming and the worst effects of climate change,” said its authors, the Science Advisory Group to the summit.

Average global temper-ature between 2015-2019 is on track to be the hottest of any five-year period on record, according to the report, which was compiled by the World Meteorological Organization.

The period “is currently estimated to be 1.1 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial (1850-1900) times and 0.2

degrees Celsius warmer than 2011-2015,” it said.

The past four years were already the hottest since record-keeping began in 1850.

Guterres said last week the world was “losing the race” on climate change, with the latest report spelling out the extent to which the gap between what is required and what is happening is widening.

Rather than falling, carbon dioxide grew two percent in 2018, reaching a record high of 37 billion tonnes.

More importantly, there is also no sign yet of reaching what is known as “peak emis-sions,” the point at which levels will start to fall, though these are not growing at the same rate as the global economy.

The 2015 Paris Agreement saw countries lay out national targets to reduce their emis-sions in order to limit long term temperature rise by either 2 degrees Celsius or 1.5 degrees Celsius.

These are benchmarks that will limit in important ways the impact of warming on world weather systems.

But even if all countries meet the goals they set

themselves, the world will warm by 2.9 degrees Celsius to 3.4 degrees Celsius, the report found. The current levels of ambition would need to be tripled to meet the 2 degrees Celsius goal and increased five-fold to meet the 1.5 degrees Celsius goal — technically still possible.

“This reads like a credit card statement after a 5-year long spending binge,” said Professor Dave Reay, chair in Carbon Management at the University of Edinburgh.

“Our global carbon credit is maxed out,” he added. “If

emissions don’t start falling there will be hell to pay.”

In 2018, global carbon dioxide was 407.8 parts per million (ppm), 2.2 ppm higher than 2017 and set to reach or exceed 410 ppm by 2019.

“The last time Earth’s atmosphere contained 400 parts per million CO 2 was about 3-5 million years ago,” the report said.

At that time, global mean surface temperatures were 2-3 degrees Celsius warmer, ice sheets at both poles had melted, and seas were 10 to 20 meters higher.

Final Emmys beckon for TV stars of ‘Thrones’ and ‘Veep’AFP LOS ANGELES

TV stars from Westeros to the White House hit the red carpet in Los Angeles yesterday as “Game of Thrones” and “Veep” take their final tilts at Emmys glory.

The long-running HBO smash hits helped the premium cable network raise the game for the small screen — with 74 Emmys between them, they are among the most decorated shows ever at television’s answer to the Oscars.

Both hope to add to their record hauls before they bow out at the glittering ceremony in downtown LA’s Microsoft Theater.

While the divisive final season of “Thrones” enraged many fans, it is the Television Academy’s 24,000-plus voters who get to choose the winners.

There is an “overwhelming” chance the blood-soaked fantasy epic will land the top drama series statuette, according to Pete Hammond, awards editor at entertainment news outlet Deadline.

“There was controversy over how it ended... but that just shows the impact of this piece of

television,” he said. “I don’t see anything in the category that can compare... it’s appointment tel-evision.” “Thrones” already bagged 10 Emmys in lesser cat-egories at last week’s Creative Arts Emmys, including for the show’s special effects and elab-orate costumes.

It needs three more statu-ettes to top its own record for most Emmys in a single season.

Nine of its stars — including Emilia Clarke (Daenerys Tar-garyen), Kit Harington (Jon Snow) and Peter Dinklage (Tyrion Lannister) — are in the running for acting prizes.

They will all take to the stage as presenters too — US broad-caster Fox hopes to squeeze a

final ratings boost out of the global cultural phenomenon in a year which sees the Emmys go without a host.

Also on the star-studded list of presenters are Gwyneth Paltrow, Michael Douglas and Julia Louis-Dreyfus — who has won six straight Emmys as foul-mouthed vice-president-turned-president Selina Meyer in political satire “Veep.” The show won best comedy in 2015, 2016 and 2017, but took a forced hiatus last year as its star battled breast cancer.

But “Veep” is back this year with a critically acclaimed final season. If it can overcome stiff competition including “The Mar-velous Mrs Maisel” — Amazon’s

story of a 1950s housewife-turned-stand up comic — HBO could achieve a rare clean sweep of all three major program categories.

“Chernobyl” — HBO’s drama about the 1986 nuclear catas-trophe — is a hot favorite for the limited series prize.

It faces off against Netflix’s “When They See Us,” the searing true story of five New York teen-agers wrongly accused of raping a Central Park jogger.

If “Chernobyl” prevails, said Hammond, it will be “a dagger in the heart of Netflix,” which despite hundreds of nominations has yet to win any of the top three program awards at the Emmys.

“The dominance of HBO this year — they really could be setting a precedent,” he said.

Another long-running popular show taking its final Emmys bow is “The Big Bang Theory,” the throwback CBS sitcom about a group of geeky, young California scientists.

It only competes in one cat-egory, for directing, but its cre-ators are unlikely to mind after all 12 seasons were purchased by HBO Max streaming service this week for a reported $500 million.

In the comedy categories, “Fleabag” has its first — and apparently last — stab at springing an Emmys surprise.

The British dark comedy acquired by Amazon was totally shunned by voters last year, failing to bag a single nomi-nation, but its second season has grown into a phenomenon on both sides of the Atlantic.

Creator and star Phoebe Waller-Bridge has ruled out a third season, saying the irrev-erent BBC series about a self-absorbed young Londoner has come “to a natural end.” In the variety competition, HBO’s political satire “Last Week Tonight” starring John Oliver is again front-runner, while NBC’s all-time leading Emmys winner “Saturday Night Live” remains formidable.

The Emmys are scheduled to begin at 5:00pm (0000 GMT on Monday).

Just before, the A-listers will make their fashion statements on the red carpet under sunny skies. “Just y’all wait till Sunday,” said “Pose” star and nominee Billy Porter, who is likely to be one of the most watched celebrities thanks to his gender-bending, cutting-edge looks.

People walk in the street during a hot day in Tokyo’s district of Ueno, in Japan, on August 7, 2019.

Moscow Cat Theatre invites guestsANATOLIA MOSCOW

Created about 30 years ago, the Moscow Cat Theatre is the only place in the world that engages cats as actors in its perform-ances.

In the theatre, the cats, which are considered as hardly trained animals, ride bike, walk on a wire, perform acrobatics and aerial acts.

“A cat will never do any-thing under constraint, but it is possible to make an arrangement with cats, using their natural abilities and needs. And, if there is love and mutual understanding... In general, love and respect give more than banal training. It is impossible to punish a cat backstage, and then, make her perform tricks onstage. With cats it doesn’t work,” Dmitry Kuklachev, the-atre’s Art Director First Deputy, said.

The idea of creating a cat theatre appeared many years ago, when now theatre’s Art Director Yury Kuklachev was beginning his carrier as a circus clown and searched for his own signature move, a star turn, his son and the bearer of the family, Dmitry Kuklachev said.

“One day he found a kitten, it was very communicative, cheerful. And during a curtain call, it so happened that he came out with the kitten on his shoulder. And he saw that the spectators warmly reacted to this. So he started developing the tricks with cats and after 20 years in the circus established his own theatre,” he said.

About 200 tailed, hairy per-formers live in the theatre, most of them are acting in 12 per-formances, that the theatre offers to their spectators, about 30 cats are “on the pension”.

“We have 12 different per-formances in our theatre. I’m saying it proudly, because in a contrast to dramatic theatres, in our case, we need 4-5 years to present a new show,” the artist says.

It takes about a year to prepare a new performer, from its first appearance in the theatre to the entrance upon the stage. The cats have to go through two castings, first, talent one and then, tests, con-firming their good health as they have to live in the theatre’s commune.

In the beginning, the theatre found new artists everywhere, including on the streets and in cats animal shelters. Now, as the theatre’s family grow, most of the actors are from the kin.

MOTC working on five public transport projectsQNA/DOHA

The Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC) continues to strive towards establishing a smart transport system, as part of the implementation of Tasmu Smart Qatar Program. The ministry is working on five main projects related to public transport. They include electric buses; establishing 17 public transport infra-structure sites; 3000 smart bus stops; developing the West Bay buses centrw, operating Water Taxis, in addition to improving the efficiency of public transport buses. There are other projects that include using Wi-Fi on street lighting poles.

The program aims to lower road fatalities to 6 per 100000 people, in addition to lowering car emissions by 10% among other goals. MOTC said in a report

yesterday that the State of Qatar acknowledges the importance of having a modern transportation infrastructure in economic and industrial development, particularly in light of the high population growth and economic expansion.

The ministry’s work is part of the effort to transform the country into a knowledge-based digital economy. The contribution of the transportation sector to GDP in 2017 was around QR17.2bn, up from QR10.6bn in 2013. The state allocated 7.9% of its 2019 budget expenditure to transportation and commu-nication. That is in addition to the QR1bn allocated this year to the expansion of HIA, a QR10bn project. That is in addition to the QR3bn allocated to the public transport program until 2021. The state will also increase the amount of highways to 8500km.

WEATHER TODAY

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

Minimum Maximum30oC 40oC

HIGH TIDE 12:25 – 00:00 LOW TIDE 04:02 – 00:00

Misty to foggy at places at first becomes

hot daytime with slight dust at times.

Humid by night.

FAJRSHOROOK

04. 06 AM05. 23 AM

11. 26 AM02.52 PM

05. 32 PM07. 02 PM

ZUHRASR

MAGHRIBISHA

PRAYER TIMINGS